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Why don't more people use Prepaid Wireless in America?

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BTW, Anyone get this?
 
Emwitus said:
Just bought a galaxy nexus (Wanted an S3 but dang those contracts). I switched my postpaid tmobile to prepaid. Now have the 50unlimited (up to 100mb) plan. Is this good? Am i still being ripped off? help me gaf.
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100mb is a trap. You'll blow through that in a day or so just by browsing alone, and will have to make absolutely sure your phone is not quietly sending and recieiving data. The plan is there just to make you pay fees for going over the cap.
 
VariantX said:
100mb is a trap. You'll blow through that in a day or so just by browsing alone, and will have to make absolutely sure your phone is not quietly sending and recieiving data. The plan is there just to make you pay fees for going over the cap.
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Well shoot. Might have to look into others then.
 
Unless you install droidwall (or similar app) and watch your data usage like a hawk you will use up that 100mb in a snap.
 
The Faceless Master said:
better than both combined. newer, faster SoC that supports Flash, comes with ICS, more onboard storage than those devices, still has a 2GB SD card...
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I'm about to pull the trigger. My Intercept is getting a bit funky and I'm sure I could clear that up with a refreshed CFW, but I'd like something that's stock to make use of some of the features that got borked with my CFW (GPS).

My first phone was a Kyocera, back in the regular mobile phone days and it was a fucking tank. So hopefully their smartphones are just as durable.

If not, it's only $79.99 on Amazon and I've had problems with iPhones, Droid, and Droid2 in the past. So price doesn't always equal quality in my experience. :\
 
Well my first impression of the Kyocera Rise is incredibly positive! Going from Android 2.2.2 to, I believe, Android 4.0 is quite the leap. The Rise has specs similar to the Motorola Droid2, but feels much faster than what I recall. Is Android 4.0 just that much better?

I still prefer the Intercept keyboard. Having a dedicated numeric row is nice for a lot of my passwords, and the shift functions on the numeric pad almost mirror the standard US QWERTY shift functions, except for the 1 key.

We'll see how long the honeymoon lasts, but having been through an iPhone, Droid, Droid2, Intercept (all sub Android 3.0 on the androids), and having experience under my belt with what are my must have Android apps I'm hoping the honeymoon lasts a long time.

Hopefully custom firmware will provide necromancy down the road should it be needed.

The Kyocera Rise is still just $79.99 at Amazon for those interested.
 
Anyone here have any experience using Google Voice + GrooveIP? I keep hearing it drains the battery, I just want to use it to dial the odd call here and there not really for main calling purposes.
 
I got my ex on StraightTalk.

It goes through either T-Mobile or AT&T. At $50 a month you get unlimited calling/texting/internet. And since it is a SIM (or those smaller SIMs for you Apple people) you can throw it in whatever smartphone you want.

I am going to switch to it myself.
 
rc213 said:
Anyone here have any experience using Google Voice + GrooveIP? I keep hearing it drains the battery, I just want to use it to dial the odd call here and there not really for main calling purposes.
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having it running in the background does drain the battery faster, but it's less than a 10% increase.



The Take Out Bandit said:
ARRRRGH!

Missing shift functions on the Rise keyboard will surely give me an aneurysm, but man is everything else super nice for the price.
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yes, that phone is indeed super nice for the price.




TriAceJP said:
Hm. What do you mean by softcapped?
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i mean they drop you down to 2G data speeds.
 
Good thing I jumped in this thread then.

Is it worth saving $40 a month? If I do that I lose 4G and unlimited data...
 
My Sprint contract is up Nov 17th. Getting a nexus 4 on straight talk. I swear sprint could offer me free service and I would turn it down. So disappointed in Sprint the past two years.

And I am absolutely never signing another cell phone contract again. Ever.
 
rc213 said:
Anyone here have any experience using Google Voice + GrooveIP? I keep hearing it drains the battery, I just want to use it to dial the odd call here and there not really for main calling purposes.
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I use Google Voice with talkatone, which is free. It has been working great for me.
 
So this straight talk plan.

I currently have the $30 Tmobile deal, (100 minutes, unlimited data/text). I wouldn't mind spending an extra $15 for unlimited everything. I tried to look at the straighttalk site, and
I guess it can work with any provider, which is nice. Is the data truly unlimited? Would I get just as good service if I had a full contract plan with AT&T/Tmobile?

I am leaning toward an AT&T phone, since my wife's hometown is in a rural area, and I don't get good service with Tmobile there.

Is the Nexus 4 AT&T compatible?
 
mackattk said:
So this straight talk plan.

I currently have the $30 Tmobile deal, (100 minutes, unlimited data/text). I wouldn't mind spending an extra $15 for unlimited everything. I tried to look at the straighttalk site, and
I guess it can work with any provider, which is nice. Is the data truly unlimited? Would I get just as good service if I had a full contract plan with AT&T/Tmobile?

I am leaning toward an AT&T phone, since my wife's hometown is in a rural area, and I don't get good service with Tmobile there.

Is the Nexus 4 AT&T compatible?
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Yes it is.
 
mackattk said:
So this straight talk plan.

I currently have the $30 Tmobile deal, (100 minutes, unlimited data/text). I wouldn't mind spending an extra $15 for unlimited everything. I tried to look at the straighttalk site, and
I guess it can work with any provider, which is nice. Is the data truly unlimited? Would I get just as good service if I had a full contract plan with AT&T/Tmobile?

I am leaning toward an AT&T phone, since my wife's hometown is in a rural area, and I don't get good service with Tmobile there.

Is the Nexus 4 AT&T compatible?
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data is unlimited, 4G data is softcapped to ~2GB/mo and ~100MB/day, then you get 2G data.
 
I have a prepaid phone. It's a dumb phone.

Kids have tried opening my phone in hopes of jellybeans inside.

Still, I rarely use it. Pay about 10 bucks a month.

It covers my business phone calls, saying hi to the family, and texts to my gf at work.
 
I think Solavei is a great idea. It's multi-level marketing, but not really a pyramid scheme at all. In a pyramid scheme, the people at the bottom of the pyramid get fucked over and lose a ton of money (that goes straight into the pockets of the people at the top of the pyramid). In Solavei, the people on the bottom still get an awesome price for an unlimited mobile plan....they just don't get any kind of huge discounts.

I'm a little skeptical that any Solavei customer is really going to turn a consistent monthly profit on the service. But it's a good deal from the start, so who really cares?

Ultimately the problem with the whole multi-level marketing scheme is that most people are forever locked into 2-year service contracts, so even if your social network is huge the number of people that can sign up for a new prepaid service is relatively small.
 
Still enjoying the Rise.

One niggling issue is the Wifi will turn itself on randomly. I looked up some info on this and went through the fix steps. It still happened.

I tried it again and rebooted the phone, and am waiting to see if it tries being helpful anymore.
 
I have a smartphone and on prepaid. $20 for 3 months on cheap as fuck rates. It includes 100mb (I only seldom use Facebook on my mobile). Can't complain, it works for me.

I didn't even pay for the phone, it was a gift muhahaha.
 
border said:
I think Solavei is a great idea. It's multi-level marketing, but not really a pyramid scheme at all. In a pyramid scheme, the people at the bottom of the pyramid get fucked over and lose a ton of money (that goes straight into the pockets of the people at the top of the pyramid). In Solavei, the people on the bottom still get an awesome price for an unlimited mobile plan....they just don't get any kind of huge discounts.

I'm a little skeptical that any Solavei customer is really going to turn a consistent monthly profit on the service. But it's a good deal from the start, so who really cares?

Ultimately the problem with the whole multi-level marketing scheme is that most people are forever locked into 2-year service contracts, so even if your social network is huge the number of people that can sign up for a new prepaid service is relatively small.
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I know its a viable promotion for a tiny company. But it really remind me off freeipods.com
 
I require a good data plan on my phone. I barely even use my minutes.

Phone selection on prepaid tends to be not as good.

That's all it boils down to for me.
 
Zulithe said:
I require a good data plan on my phone. I barely even use my minutes.

Phone selection on prepaid tends to be not as good.

That's all it boils down to for me.
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You don't seem to understand the concept of prepaid. You can use any phone with a gsm prepaid sim.
 
So what are the best options for prepaid with the Nexus 4?

What alternatives are there to getting a Nexus 4 and going with the Straight Talk $45 unlimited plan? I know it's softcapped, but most of my friends thinking about going this route all have wifi everywhere anyways.
 
If you use data alot and talk little, get the TMobile Walmart plan. If you don't get good TMobile signal, get Straight Talk with an ATT sim.


If you don't use data at all, get Page Plus.
 
Brettison said:
So what are the best options for prepaid with the Nexus 4?

What alternatives are there to getting a Nexus 4 and going with the Straight Talk $45 unlimited plan? I know it's softcapped, but most of my friends thinking about going this route all have wifi everywhere anyways.
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Yeah I agree with Tino, if you are on WiFi everywhere and use hundreds and hundreds of minutes per month, and dont want to make WiFi calls via Google Voice or whatever, then just go with straight talk, their daily data caps are meaningless if you are always on WiFi.

But if you only need 100 - 200 minutes a month, go with the $30 T-Mobile plan. Just put $40 on your reload each month (the extra $10 buys you another 100 minutes for the month) and you'll get the HSPA42 speeds, along with 5GB of data with no daily cap. Im pretty sure both Straight talk and T-Mobile have unlimited texts, I cant be complete sure about that on ST though.
 
tino said:
My experience is the voice quality is not good enough.
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I haven't ever had any trouble with it over WiFi at home at and work. But I haven't ever tried it over HSPA+ much. Just once, but yeah it bypasses the minutes if you use GrooveIP+GoogleVoice.
 
~~~ Black Friday ~~~



Radio Shack:

$69.99 - Boost Mobile Samsung Galaxy Rush

$79.99 - Cricket HTC Desire C

$99.99 - Virgin Mobile HTC One V

$129.99 - Cricket Alcatel Authority

$149.99 - Boost Mobile ZTE Warp Sequent



Dollar General:

$39 - Net 10 ZTE Merit



Family Dollar:

$29 - Net 10 ZTE Merit



Office Max:

$19.99 - Virgin Mobile PCD Venture



BestBuy:

$299.99 - Boost Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II 4G

$64.99 - Boost Mobile ZTE Warp

$49.99 - Virgin Mobile LG Optimus Elite



Walgreens:

$99.99 - T-Mobile (Prepaid) Prism



Walmart:

$39.88 - Straight Talk LG Optimus Logic

$39.88 - Boost Mobile Kyocera Hydro

$49 - Verizon (Prepaid) Samsung Illusion



feel free to post more.

usually, Virgin/Boost have online order coupon codes for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
 
Man those US prices are insane.

I pay (prepaid) 4.5euros/mo for unlimited 3g traffic (1gb full speed and after 1gb capped speed).

No call/sms included tho
 
For people who are super frugal data users, I come across a data service that's pretty cheap:

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1227296/

Walmart "Internet-Go" hotspot.

You pay $80 for the MiFi hotspot, for data, you either pay $45 for 30 days of 8GB of data, or you pay $45 for 4GB of data that never expires.

This is great for
1) foreign traveller who is staying in the US for a few weeks

2) low data plan user who want to have data occasionally. For example if you are using Page Plus with its 4 cent/min prepaid plan, you can use this to get online. If you only use Opera Mini to go online, you bare uses any data. The $45 probably can last you a whole year.

I would get this for my wife if she is not lazy and refuse to let go of her crappy iPhone 3GS.
 
Okay, following the steps to disable wifi I found online and rebooting the phone seems to have alleviated the random wifi turning on issue I was having previously.

So far the Rise is still kicking ass and taking names for a song and a dance.
 
The Take Out Bandit said:
Okay, following the steps to disable wifi I found online and rebooting the phone seems to have alleviated the random wifi turning on issue I was having previously.

So far the Rise is still kicking ass and taking names for a song and a dance.
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indeed. still couldn't believe they launched it at $99.99, especially when the Hydro on Boost was $129.99 and basically the same plus waterproof, minus a keyboard, though that's $99.99 MSRP now.
 
Quick question.

I want to switch to that T-Mobile $30 plan. I am currently on Verizon. Will i be able to port my number to tmobile? If so how would i go about doing this?
 
ughhh I just bought 2 LG Optimus Elites a couple months ago for my wife and I at $100 each. I'm salty as all get out.
 
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