Pondering how to cut a phone bill
-
Currently I am running cellphone only on T-Mobile @ $50/month, which includes 1gb 4glte data (overages would result in dropping to 2g internet)
I'm pondering going with T-Mobile 4G lte data plan (1gb @ $10/mo, or 3gb @ $20/mo) and using a VOIP service to tie a phone#, voicemail service, etc to the data only plan. (VOIP services are also required to support E911, which I would prefer to have available)
Anybody have any experience in this area, any recommendations, cautions, etc? I very rarely make phone calls (total this month is less than 60 minutes), and my data usage is normally 100% wifi, with rare exceptions when i'm around town. (Currently at 800mb usage this month due to an internet outage for a day, but I normally run my phone around 400mb usage)
T-Mobile doesn't require a contract, so I can at any time upgrade/downgrade my internet as usage demands it.
-
T-Mobile blocks VOIP if you do data only and try to VOIP. At least they did to me.
If you have good Sprint coverage, I've got the 2GB/mo data only plan for only $15/mo on a tablet, which Sprint allows VOIP and you can get text messaging through google voice.End result, I have a phablet for $15/mo with essentially unlimited data (usually on wifi).
Only down side for you is that I can't receive calls the way I have it set up, but that's partly intentional, I don't want to receive calls. I think you can get it to receive, but I'm not certain.
-
That sounds pretty sensible, but I'd give whatever VOIP app you're interested in using a try before switching.
-
Yes, you'll definitely want to make sure it works first! Especially if you stay on T-Mobile. The only way I could VOIP on T-Mobile was to connect to a WiFi somewhere. The 3g connection didn't allow it. I didn't have 4g at the time, so maybe that's different, but I doubt it. They want you to pay for a phone plan.
-
Looks like the minimum for sprint in my area for data only is 1gb @ $20/mo at 3g, and overage costs per megabyte. Definitely not a good fit for my area.
Looks like I should give t-mobile a call and ask if they have restrictions about VOIP - I'm not sure how they would figure out i'm using VOIP on my 4g lte connection though. My current plan gives me the option of calling via regular phone, or VOIP as well (though it's through the official phone app, rather than a VOIP app provider)
-
For 3g, it was like they specifically blocked VOIP packets. I could toggle to/from wifi/3g and watch the signal go green to red to green.
T-Mobile here also does lossy compression on web browsing graphics, and blocks some ads - if you root the phone and tether to use it as main internet for your PC, you'll notice that all your webpages' images look like shit on a full-size screen. And that some ads you used to see are mysteriously gone.
-
I pay $35/mo. for a Virgin Mobile plan; switched from Sprint but still using the same network. The data's theoretically unlimited, but I believe once you hit 2.5 GB or so they start slowing it down. (Never gotten close except when I screwed up some OTA update certificates and updates got downloaded over and over again.)
I like the lack of a contract. The only disadvantage of Virgin Mobile is the limited selection of phones (it's getting better) and that you'll have to buy a phone when you switch; Sprint has separate ESN lists for contract and no-contract phones. :( I had a Nexus S 4G on it for six months or so but gave it up when I figured it'd be better to have support.
-
-
Wow, you got a crappy plan. My T-Mobile plan (same cost) gives me unlimited everything. Only catch is that after 3GB of data, I'm not guaranteed high speed. When I exceed that, I usually still LTE speeds, but my traffic gets lower priority after that.
-
Unless you have a corporate discount, or highly grandfathered plan, I kind of doubt that it's the same cost. The last year-two years it's been $60 for 3gb of data.
I have unlimited talk/text, but all I ever use is the data and about 1 hour of talk, 50-100 texts per month. Generally speaking, my phone usage is just 'I'm wandering around my house and want to browse the web'
-
At the beginning of the year, T-Mobile forced me out of my grandfathered plan. I think they eliminated all grandfathered lans and switched everyone to their new pricing scheme. I am getting unlimited everything (3GB LTE) for $50/month.
It was initially 2.5GB, but they bumped me to 3GB about a month ago.
-
http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans/individual.html#tab-navigation Lies! Also, my enter button is broken for posting again @sam
-
Screen cap from my.tmobile.com (sanitized for anonymity):
And the expansion of the data section:
-
T-Mobile forced me out of my grandfathered plan
They did this to me too - tried to auto-move me (for my convenience, so they said) from my $39.99 unlimited to a $50 for 5gb plan. I countered their offer by getting a free device and a $15/mo bill by changing to Sprint
-
What's it show if you go to change services? Are you in the US? Is it 4G, or 4G LTE? Definitely a different plan than what I have ($25 instead of $50 for UNL talk) -- @sam, enter is broken for this post too. I blame abarker because he probably edited his post.
-
What's it show if you go to change services? Are you in the US? Is it 4G, or 4G LTE?
Not sure about change services. I'll have to check that later. Yeah, I'm in the US. It says 4G, but I get 4G LTE, so I assume that's just a fuck-up on their site.
-
http://support.t-mobile.com/thread/42640?start=0&tstart=0
May be relevant
-
Yea - so they don't specifically block SIP traffic... just all the ports commonly used for/by SIP traffic.
Semantics. If they catch you using SIP enough on a port they haven't blocked yet, they'd probably add it to the list. They want you to sign up for the phone contract where the real $$ is.
-
Blocking a port is different than blocking traffic. It's fairly trivial to change the port traffic. And if you choose an arbitrarily high port, it's unlikely they will block that port unless you start a service which tons of people use for that port (IE: If I choose 62345 for my port) it would require a pretty heavy cost to tmobile to block, and a trivial change on my side to unblock.
(Blocking typical ports makes sense to me from a business perspective from both preventing sillies from abusing the service, and typical security attacks)
I've still not committed to the OP method (still doing research on and off) - but I work in telephony and think I have a reasonably high chance of success.
-
-
I was going to investigate sipdroid (and csipsimple),
what the fuck did you do to your text?
-
[spoiler]I now only post in fancy auras because they are cool. See spoiler topic for explanation.
[/spoiler]
-
-
Can you change font color to be a cool blurred background orange text highlight?
-
[spoiler]I now only post in fancy auras because they are cool. See spoiler topic for explanation.
[/spoiler]
That gets harder to read when you mouse over it. Wonderful!
-
If you click on it and close the undefined page, the effect goes away to be just a blue link. (suspect: the visited link formatting :P)
-
-
Well, there's the redish color for recently edited, or the 1.9k views for hot topic.
-
[spoiler]Yes, but those aren't things that can be triggered in markdown or post html. And I haven't found a way to bleed spoiler tags[/spoiler]
-
This is a test reply to see if enter works on chrome
hmmmmm, it seems it is working, going to need some more details on what you did and how it happened?
(I pressed tab and enter)
-
-
You can do it by wrapping your text with . Although I hate to give away my secret sauce for free, it's too easy to figure out to be worth trying to hide.
I call it... spoilerplating.@Matches: Please don't follow @darkmatter's example. Those of use who have an issue with the default spoiler display and have started using a custom style sheet find his posts to be a pain in the ass to read now. I actually have to mouse over his text to see what he's saying.
-
The only consistent repro i've been seeing is when somebody posts directly before me, and directly after I click reply to user.
so 1) Open a reply to user
2) Have someone swoop in and post before you
3) Enter breaks
4) Cry in a corner
-
Don't use smart phone. Use regular phone and save some money.
-
Except I wouldn't use the regular phone, because I don't generally call people during the month and even text is light these days ( < 60 minutes phone time for the month, < 200 texts for the month ) Data is my baby, baby.
Nagesh, I see @the_dragon coming! Run!
@sam Why does autocomplete @user behavior behave so erradically? I start typing @<user>, see it hit the right user, hit tab to auto complete, and it puts in a seemingly random name (such as @abarker) -- Point and case, I was typing the_ and saw the_dragon pop up, hit tab, and it was abarker.
What gives?
Also WHAT THE HELL GUYS, YOU HAVEN'T TAKEN @USER YET?!
Get on that shit.
-
I'm here!
-
I'm here!
<img src="/uploads/default/3081/52999611bc7ab154.jpg" width="600" height="450">
Are you happy to see me? @the_dragon
-
Is it bad that I instantly recognized where this came from?
Filed under: [Or is it worse that I actually miss playing it now and again?](#tag2)
-
Is it bad that I instantly recognized where this came from?
So it not from animated movie "Shrek"?
-
Ah, a delicious looking treat ...
-
That was a green, female dragon (she was inferior only because she was green). I am a male red dragon.
-
Those of use who have an issue with the default spoiler display and have started using a custom style sheet find his posts to be a pain in the ass to read now.
Bastards, you break the forum with personalized custom CSS and now I'm supposed to kowtow to the limitations of your personal implementations‽
With complaints from 4 people so far @dhromed @arantor @abarker @antiquarian - I'll post normal again for plain non-troll content. Especially with respect to @dhromed who could probably have just modified/deleted all my posts if he was feeling @codingwhorrorish. I don't see how this will help cut my phone bill though @Matches and @the_dragon.
-
You could have saved with geico
...
-
That's not how it works.
That's not how any of this works.
-
I don't see how this will help cut my phone bill though @Matches and @the_dragon.
Derailing, duh!
Damn it! you distracted me! Where did @Nagesh get to?
-
I have the same sort of thing when I go to my Verizon plan: the plan I'm under no longer exists, hasn't for years and years, and the plan my husband is under also no longer exists, even though that's what he was put on when he lost his grandfathered unlimited plan. If I click "change plan" they can save me -$50 or so a month by consolidating us both onto a single, shared-data plan with less data than we have together.
-
-
intentional?
To be honest, every time I see his tag I read it as @codingwhorror.
I think it's a better moniker anyway, funny and fitting!
-
-
What about bolt croppers?
