Question about the $30 T-Mobile Unlimited data (Walmart) plan

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ericshmerick

Senior Member
Apr 7, 2006
1,496
273
I am getting fed-up with AT&T and am exploring options for my GNEX.

I was looking at the pre-paid T-Mobile plan with 100 minutes and unlimited data (up to 5 gigs, 2g speeds after). This seems like a good deal as I use little voice and nave Google Voice if necessary (via data network).

How does this work? Can I go to Walmart, buy the cheapest ($29) prepaid T-Mobile phone, activate with this $30 plan then toss my SIM in my GNEX and all will work?
 
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ericshmerick

Senior Member
Apr 7, 2006
1,496
273
rock7632 said:
I bought the Sim online from Amazon for $4 and activated it on t-mobile.com with that plan.worked without a hitch
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Thanks. Have a link to the Amazon product? The one's I'm seeing have users complaining that they are old sim cards.

Also, can I take my GNEX to a T-Mobile store and have them sell me a sim for $4.99 (as listed on their site) and activate the unlimited data plan there?
 
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voxigenboy

voxigenboy

Senior Member
Jul 2, 2010
1,610
208
San Diego
back in the day i bought some cheapie pre-paid Target T-Mob phone for like $20, took out the sim and put it into an HTC HD2 i got off of craigslist and it worked fine.
 
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jadeus0831

Senior Member
Sep 7, 2010
100
19
Hollywood
I thought I read it was a Walmart exclusive deal with T-Mobile, meaning only in Walmart stores or online... Feeling the same here about att and wanting to switch to the $30 plan.
 
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rock7632

Senior Member
Jun 12, 2010
530
30
Boston
ericshmerick said:
Thanks. Have a link to the Amazon product? The one's I'm seeing have users complaining that they are old sim cards.

Also, can I take my GNEX to a T-Mobile store and have them sell me a sim for $4.99 (as listed on their site) and activate the unlimited data plan there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

that plan is for Walmart and t-mobile.com only and not for T-Mobile stores. this is the one I bought

http://www.amazon.com/T-Mobile-Tmob...RY06/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1322514224&sr=8-6

some reviews are saying that its an old Sim but it depends on the marketplace seller that you're buying from. the one I used, I forgot the name but it was compatible with Amazon prime, sent me a new one so it worked for that plan
 
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Luxferro

Senior Member
Nov 19, 2009
1,511
436
Long Island, NY
I have this plan. I bought it directly from T-Mobiles website. Works great for me cause I hardly use voice, and in the rare occasion that I might go over 100 minutes. its only 10 cents a minute more, so you'd probably never exceed the price of your current $60-$100 plan.

edit: this reminded me I need to call soon to cancel my even more plus plan that I have suspended wasting $10 a month.
 
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ericshmerick

Senior Member
Apr 7, 2006
1,496
273
rock7632 said:
that plan is for Walmart and t-mobile.com only and not for T-Mobile stores.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Right, so does Walmart sell the SIM by itself? I don't want to purchase a phone just to throw it away (even if it's only $29). I'd like to run to Walmart today and try this out as I'm headed out of town tomorrow (and don't want to wait on Amazon 3rd party shipping).
 
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clearym

Member
Oct 26, 2011
42
5
Connecticut
ericshmerick said:
I am getting fed-up with AT&T and am exploring options for my GNEX.

I was looking at the pre-paid T-Mobile plan with 100 minutes and unlimited data (up to 5 gigs, 2g speeds after). This seems like a good deal as I use little voice and nave Google Voice if necessary (via data network).

How does this work? Can I go to Walmart, buy the cheapest ($29) prepaid T-Mobile phone, activate with this $30 plan then toss my SIM in my GNEX and all will work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I have this plan. I ordered my SIM directly from T-mobile.com and activated it thru their website. Just be sure that you don't order a SIM card only, you need an SIM Card + Activation Kit. The activation kit is just an activation code you'll enter when activating it online, but I'm not sure if there may be SIM cards for sale without activation kits.

Edit: I think I paid $6.99 thru T-mobile.com and it came with ~$3 to apply toward my plan. Not a bad price...
 
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rock7632

Senior Member
Jun 12, 2010
530
30
Boston
ericshmerick said:
Right, so does Walmart sell the SIM by itself? I don't want to purchase a phone just to throw it away (even if it's only $29). I'd like to run to Walmart today and try this out as I'm headed out of town tomorrow (and don't want to wait on Amazon 3rd party shipping).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

when I went to Walmart to get this they told me that they only sell it with pre paid phones. Sim kit comes inside the phone box which is why I decided to buy online. choice was either straight from T-Mobile.com or Amazon. tmo was 6.99 and Amazon was cheaper with no tax and free shipping so I want with Amazon
 
martonikaj

martonikaj

Senior Member
Nov 20, 2010
7,867
1,670
Seattle, WA
ericshmerick said:
I am getting fed-up with AT&T and am exploring options for my GNEX.

I was looking at the pre-paid T-Mobile plan with 100 minutes and unlimited data (up to 5 gigs, 2g speeds after). This seems like a good deal as I use little voice and nave Google Voice if necessary (via data network).

How does this work? Can I go to Walmart, buy the cheapest ($29) prepaid T-Mobile phone, activate with this $30 plan then toss my SIM in my GNEX and all will work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Thanks for asking this question, I was about to make this thread myself (after seeing a few people talking about it here in the GN forums). I currently have a EM+ plan that's $70/mo after taxes. That's 500min, unlim text, unlim (5gb) data. So its really worth it to literally cut my bill in half by going this route.

How are you planning to set up google voice over data? Using one of the apps with a SIP account? This is the 2nd part to using this plan, is being able to just use GV with SIP while at home on WiFi or in a solid HSPA+ area.

Also for anyone who has moved to this plan, were you able to port your number over to this plan from T-mobile? I've heard there are issues with this because the $30 plan is for "new subscribers only".

TIA.
 
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Luxferro

Senior Member
Nov 19, 2009
1,511
436
Long Island, NY
martonikaj said:
Also for anyone who has moved to this plan, were you able to port your number over to this plan from T-mobile? I've heard there are issues with this because the $30 plan is for "new subscribers only".

TIA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I'm pretty sure you can't port. You'll get a new number. No biggie if your already a google voice user and use that as your main number.

edit: also, if you plan to use google voice with this plan. You need to call and ask them to disable voice mail. so your voice messages will go to your google voice number, and not use minutes since you never answered the phone. Also, call forwarding is disabled on prepaids, so this is why you need to disable voicemail on the t-mobile line if you want the messages to go to google voice and not to the carrier voice mail. just skip the voice mail setup in the google voice app, but set it up for voicemails on the google voice website for that phone number.

you also need to call to disable webguard.
 
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Q

qnet

Senior Member
Oct 26, 2011
377
57
ATL
www.network-creations.net
The plan would have been ideal for me if I could use conditional call forwarding with Google voice Voicemail. I would have probably ordered the GN form Espansys by now. it just a small thing but, I really like the way Google voice works. I have separate greetings for personel and, business. This something I don't want to give up.
 
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Luxferro

Senior Member
Nov 19, 2009
1,511
436
Long Island, NY
qnet said:
The plan would have been ideal for me if I could use conditional call forwarding with Google voice Voicemail. I would have probably ordered the GN form Espansys by now. it just a small thing but, I really like the way Google voice works. I have separate greetings for personel and, business. This something I don't want to give up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Couldn't you just set up personal greetings per contacts in google voice on the website, or by groups?

edit: i just looked. you can do it either by contact, or by groups. it should work fine (I haven't tested it). you'd need to disable t-mobile voice mail first by calling them to disable it. then after a certain amount of rings or time, the call would automatically go back to google voice (if no one picked up), and go to google voice voice mail. basically bypassing the lack of conditional forwarding.
 
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qnet

Senior Member
Oct 26, 2011
377
57
ATL
www.network-creations.net
Luxferro said:
I'm pretty sure you can't port. You'll get a new number. No biggie if your already a google voice user and use that as your main number.

edit: also, if you plan to use google voice with this plan. You need to call and ask them to disable voice mail. so your voice messages will go to your google voice number, and not use minutes since you never answered the phone. Also, call forwarding is disabled on prepaids, so this is why you need to disable voicemail on the t-mobile line if you want the messages to go to google voice and not to the carrier voice mail. just skip the voice mail setup in the google voice app, but set it up for voicemails on the google voice website for that phone number.

you also need to call to disable webguard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

So you can actually use Google voice Voicemail with a pre-paid, you just have to have them disable the T-mobile one? I didn't realize this. Have you done this yourself?

---------- Post added at 04:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:41 PM ----------
Luxferro said:
Couldn't you just set up personal greetings per contacts in google voice on the website, or by groups?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Yeah, that's actually how I have it setup. From what I understood pre-paid plans don't support call-forwarding so, I couldn't forward my missed or ignored calls to GV. I've been hearing a lot of mixed ideas on this and, didn't want to take the chance it wouldn't work.
 
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Luxferro

Senior Member
Nov 19, 2009
1,511
436
Long Island, NY
qnet said:
So you can actually use Google voice Voicemail with a pre-paid, you just have to have them disable the T-mobile one? I didn't realize this. Have you done this yourself?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

yeah, that is how i do it. i don't have personal greetings. but my voice mails go to google voice app or site, since the t-mobile line never gets picked up and it's voice mail is disabled.

---------- Post added at 04:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:46 PM ----------
qnet said:
Yeah, that's actually how I have it setup. From what I understood pre-paid plans don't support call-forwarding so, I couldn't forward my missed or ignored calls to GV. I've been hearing a lot of mixed ideas on this and, didn't want to take the chance it wouldn't work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse


Just order one the new sim, test it out, and if it doesn't work like you want it, don't use it anymore. You could always suspend your even more plus plan for $10 a month until you know you want to keep the $30 plan. That is what I did.

edit: woops, you weren't the one that said they had even more plus plan. But either way, its basically a $30 test to see if it meets your demands. I think it will if you set it up properly. disable t-mobile voicemail, and disable webguard.
 
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qnet

Senior Member
Oct 26, 2011
377
57
ATL
www.network-creations.net
Luxferro said:
Just order one the new sim, test it out, and if it doesn't work like you want it, don't use it anymore. You could always suspend your even more plus plan for $10 a month until you know you want to keep the $30 plan. That is what I did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Thanks, I will have to test this out. I have a Mytouch 4G and, I will test it out on that. If it works, I may get the GSM Galaxy Nexus and, port my number over. This has been one of the things holding me back. Of coures by the time I do this, the Verizon version may be out and, I'll have a decision to make.
I've also heard that they only charge you 10 cents for every minute you go over. That's too good to be true for me. I checked my usage patterns and, I only use about 170 minutes a month on average.
 
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jagwire

Member
Jan 12, 2010
9
2
Luxferro said:
I'm pretty sure you can't port. You'll get a new number. No biggie if your already a google voice user and use that as your main number.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I was able to call up T-mobile and switch from an Even More Plus plan no hassle. CSR just said she put through a form and 24 hours later my number was ported to this new plan. Did this like a week ago? I recommend this plan plus GrooveIP for free wireless calling.
 
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    Deleted member 2842059
    For what it's worth I just met with our Rep. Everything is as I posted a couple back. All signage, end caps and promo material are correct and will continue to be correct for the future. I take it as is. Hope that helps.
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    noneone
    Hi!

    Follow up to my earlier post, seeing some folks having trouble signing up ...

    There are so many different combinations of phones, sim cards, plans, and Tmo csrs, it appears it can be confusing. :)

    As mentioned earlier, I signed up with an activation card from BestBuy, and signed up on line. I had NOTHING to do with Walmart. I like walmart, best buy was closer. :)

    I did NOT need to buy a $30 refill card, I in fact started my account with a $50 prepaid card. I DID need to sign up on Tmo, but, as long as I was starting a new $30 a month plan, they didn't care I filled up the first time with $50.

    I did have one issue, that may help folks out.

    I signed up online, went all the way to the end. I didn't want to use my credit card, and I couldn't get the web site to take my prepaid card .......

    /facepalm

    SO, there are some T-Mobile prepaid cards, that mostly just say T-Mobile, THAT ARE NOT COMPATIBLE with the sign up webiste. I'm not sure if they're a new vendor (lots of vendors sell refill cards for many of the pay per month services).

    SO, I simply called tmo, they explained it to me, took the number from the back of the card, my account got credited, and I was all set.


    GL!

    ---------- Post added at 09:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:56 AM ----------

    Update on impressions:

    I've now had the plan a few weeks. Just in those few weeks, I've been in Chicago, Boston, Newark, southern NJ, and a number of places in IL. I have an HTC sensation (those can only use the 21 mpbs I think) that I picked up very cheap on craigslist. For reference, I also have a VERIZON (ya, I know, boo :) ) Galaxy nexus. Not used much, but available, I also have an ATT iphone 3gs.

    1) voice service - at least everywhere I've been, T-Mobile and verizon have the "most" coverage, sometimes ATT was hard to get. Sometimes Tmo had 4g where verizon didn't, sometimes verizon had when Tmo didn't. All 3 where pretty close where I went.

    2) verizon data is way faster, regularly get 25 MBS on verizon, MOST often I'm at 2.5 mbs data on tmo when it says 4g. Highest on tmo has been 6mbs at 4am in O'hare airport and Monomouth Mall in NJ. (I speedtest.net often :) . My home DSL is 6mbs, so, verizon a LOT faster, tmobile about half my home DSL, tmo is plenty fast enough for WOW and Diablo 3 hotspoted on my notebook. (I travel a LOT, gota have games on the road :) )

    3) 100 minutes .... is REALLY NOT a lot. I'm single, so no family to call every night on the road, and I pretty regularly use 250 minutes + - a month of voice, checking voicemails, calling mom once a week (30+ minutes right there ... you KNOW you need to call your mom more often ..... ) YES, I have the verizon + att phones so if needed could fall back to them, but, I'm trying to make Tmo 100 minutes work .....

    4) I have used talkatone + google voice to help get over the minutes hump. For me, it works perfectly fine, I get no complaints from mom or others when I'm on a dedicated wifi connection (hotel wifi seems to work fine). Talkatone does not have as good a voice quality over the TMO 4g data connection (about 2.5 mbs on average, but, in evenings very often about 1.5 mbs), and sometimes 2 second or so lag. Interestingly, talkatone is fine on the verizon lte 4g services hotspot service on my tmo phone, so, I'm guessing this is a speed issue, not sure if another VOIP besides talkatone would work better on a 1.5 mbs connection.

    5) SIDE NOTE on hotels .... /shrug, I often find hotel internet works fine with talkatone + tmo phone, but, does NOT work fine (terrible lag) for my games (wow, D3). Given the games need less overall bandwidth, I'm just guessing the hotels are running some type of QoS thing that prioritizes games (and youtube HD it seems) low.

    6) 100 minutes IS PERFECTLY FINE, for me, ymmv, for calls "on the run", and then I use the non tmo wifi connections + talkatone when I know I need to make longer calls, e.g. mom, etc..

    7) I HAVE been paying for the $15 pay as you go hotspot. I recently found out that apparently you need it for most phones, but NOT the HTC sensation. HTC sensation had "free" hotspot until the ICS upgrade. /shrug, who knew? :) As mentioned the hotspot works fine for most that I do, but tmo data DOES significantly bog down during high use times.

    8) Is 5gb high speed data enough? Well, mostly for me :). I game. 5gb is PLENTY for a few hours of wow or D3 EVERY NIGHT, and a couple more hours of web surfing forums, news, etc.. 5gb doesn't get you very many HD 1080P movie downloads though. Diablo 3 came out this last month ... 7GB download all at one time .......... SO, for MOST stuff I do, normal usage, 5gb is fine. I either wait till I'm at my home DSL connection, or, somewhere with a "free wifi" to download one time "big" stuff. E.g., I set up the D3 to download overnight on the hotel free wifi service, downloaded a Walking Dead TV HD episode at a restaurant ...




    SO overall, I'm very pleased with this deal, I spend $45 a month, get internet on my laptop, and the tmo gives me normal usage regular access to everything I want.

    I DO need to augment this plan with wifi for "big" downloads, and for "longer" voice calls, I use non tmo wifi + talkatone + google voice for these longer calls, as the Tmo 4g data + talkatone sounds "tinny" but, does work in a pinch.

    This really is a great deal, hope you all enjoy it!
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    martonikaj
    martonikaj
    SNaReX said:
    So it is great. Should I go to wall mart for this? And will I have to buy a new phone for this? Can you give which way is best for my situation?
    Can someone write a brief summary. I will list my situation again.

    1. I'm a t-mobile individual plan user - $30
    2. I have Galaxy Nexus GSM from Expansys
    3. I don't want to change my number but I want to take the advantage of this plan.

    I think I will start by buying this one http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tmobile-30-Wireless-Airtime-Card/15443357

    If you can clear it up I will appreciate that.
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    I PM'd you. That card isn't necessary. You can refill with a debit/credit card online just fine.

    What you will do depends on your current plan. If its prepaid, you might be able to get them to switch you to the other prepaid plan. If you're postpaid, same deal. But it could be harder. Its really dependent on the CS rep you get and how knowledgeable they are of the plans.

    The most fool-proof way to do it is just buy a Walmart phone or SIM activation kit and start the plan, then cancel your current one to "free up" the number, then port it to your new plan.
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    2
    Product F(RED)
    Product F(RED)
    That was a while ago. I've been getting for a month or more now. 25 Mbps :D I have a T-Mobile Note 2 now, actually. And it does have LTE. If you don't care about wireless charging, it's better than the AT&T version because it does AT&T and T-Mobile LTE and HSPA+. You can mod the AT&T version to enable AWS for HSPA+ if you want to use it in a non-refarmed T-Mobile area.
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    2
    jonathan3579
    jonathan3579
    catpunt said:
    thanks for the suggestion, i'll try it. just curious, what is the benefit of using epc until you nearly reach your cap before switching to the voicestream one?
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    Lol. My friend is a manager at T-Mobile so i just follow her directions. She has been pretty good with helping me out in these "grey" areas. I always wondered it myself but it might actually not make any difference. I can't say for sure though. Sorry.

    I can tell you that i have been using and following those directions since the G2x came out though so it is pretty solid.

    Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
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