Related
Hi:
Up until now, I have been using T-Mobile ever since the XDA came out.
Used a "visorphone" before that. I do NOT use T-Mobile's Internet access (T-zones) ever since I got hit with a $180+ overage charge the first month I used it.
So.
Here is my issue:
Starting a few months ago, I noticed that, even though I do NOT use T-Mobile for any Internet access (I call up my own ISP instead from the XDA), T-Mobile are charging me something like $.50 for every email sent or received from the XDA using my own ISP. I suppose they monitor the traffic or something. When I protested that they shouldn't charge me for anything Internet-related, only the minutes used to call my ISP, they told me basically that they don't give a damn what I think, and that I will continue to be charged $.50 for every email. They show up on my bill as "e-note" to the phone number "500."
I think that's ridiculous and possibly illegal since it doesn't involve their servers or their services at all, but I don't have the energy to deal with their untrained "Wireless Data Group." It would take years to explain this to them. Just getting them on the phone took over 1 hour. This is partly a warning post, that this is what T-Mobile is doing, and we should know about it. So, I am looking into switching to AT&T.
My questions for anyone reading this:
1) anyone else have that billing issue with t-mobile?
2) is at&t any better? do they charge for internet traffic even if you haven't signed up for their services?
3) i don't think i have simlock issues, the unlock util from this site says that it's already unlocked. rom is 4.00.21 ENG, radio stack 6.24.00
from yorch.net.
4) is there anything i should know? won't this t-mobile build of "windows mobile 2003" rom work with at&t ?
any info appreciated, you can email thomas at pullen.com (removed the @ for the spam bots).
thanks!
TMO is pretty bad, iv experienced their levels of ignorance too, but once in a while, u can incounter sumone who knows alot about what they do
you should have never used tzones (if it wasnt unlimited) for transfering big amounts of data, thats why u got charged so much, for going over the allowd data amount
when connecting to your own ISP, are u connecting using THEIR # ? ... if so, then i dont know where TMO gets these ideas 4 charging u extra + the phone call :roll:
to unlock u need to go back to a 2002 rom, with the unlock software
ur build will work, but it would be better to switch to 4.00.05 , since u wont need all the useless TMO apps and what not
Hey tpullen,
Sorry to hear about your terrible time with T-Mobile.
Q: What type of plan do you have with T-Mobile?
If its only a voice plan with no data the .50 sounds about right and will be the same if you move over to AT&T. As a matter of fact AT&T's data charges are higher.
It doesn't matter that you're calling your own ISP, the fact still remains you're sending/receiving data on a voice only plan. :wink:
HTH
thanks
hey:
thanks for the replies. to answer your questions:
i had the t-mobile 3,000 minutes for $49 plan. it is only free long distance for the southeast u.s.; i think it's called a 'neighborhood' plan.
no data at all in my plan; i would call my own isp and surf the web and check email. only about 3 months ago t-mobile started charging me to check email, but not for the web. my complaint is that i am using my own isp, and the call comes out of my minutes. yes, it's sending data with a voice-only plan, but hey! i have a dial-up phone line, nothing fancy, a land line in my house. it's voice-only. if i plug a modem into my home phone line and call my isp, should i expect to get a bill from my phone company for every email i look at? to my way of thinking, and anyone is free to disagree, if i'm not USING your services then i don't want to PAY for your services. unless it is a t-mobile email, web, or proxy server i'm talking to, i don't expect to pay t-mobile. the minutes were already being deducted from my available minutes. that's all i should have to pay.
i don't think that's so outrageous.
i did unlock my phone with the xda dev build, then went back to the same tmobile windows mobile 2003 build. i wasn't sure if the xda "stays unlocked" once you unlock it and then put a new rom on, but it does.
now i have an at&t sim, and it works well enough, but the sort-of-funny thing is that you apparantly can NOT just call your own isp with at&t.
i can't seem to get a connection to work. so i don't know. maybe i will stay with at&t since they, according to their sales literature anyway, have a data network that's like 3 times faster than t-mobile's data network.
of course it's more $ for them.
whatever the case, i have 30 days to try at&t with no obligation, cancel any time, owe them nothing. everyone has that option right now, in fact, due to the new ftc "local number port" thing happening.
i'll let ya'll know how it goes if i stick with at&t. i can always stay with t-mobile, but i'm not sure if that's a good idea.
Re: thanks
tpullen said:
maybe i will stay with at&t since they, according to their sales literature anyway, have a data network that's like 3 times faster than t-mobile's data network. of course it's more $ for them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you're talking about the EDGE service. Yeah, like 4 times the cost of T-Mobile's unlimited plan. I think I'll stick to the cheaper slower service.
tpullen said:
whatever the case, i have 30 days to try at&t with no obligation, cancel any time, owe them nothing. everyone has that option right now, in fact, due to the new ftc "local number port" thing happening.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Owe them nothing?! You might want to read that literature again. You'll not pay a cancellation fee nor an activation fee, but you will owe them for the prorated amount of time you had service, and any other additional fees that you use. This is pretty standard in the wireless industry. So if you go over your prorated minutes for the month, you owe them airtime charges. Happened to me, so just be careful.
bye bye at&t
hi arkhangel:
yes, you are correct:
4. Every new customer gets a 30 day risk free trial. When you purchase a phone and activate service at an AT&T Wireless store or at attwireless.com, you can return your undamaged phone for a refund within the first 30 days and pay only for airtime and usage charges. It’s just one more way we can earn your trust.
so it is not without charge, and thank god i only made one 6-minute call.
as far as the EDGE network goes, it was so-so...i only viewed 2 webpages with it, they loaded pretty much as quickly as with any other data service over the xda...and the funny thing is that it consumed apparantly almost 2 mb to do so.
i am pretty frustrated now, the at&t customer service has been pretty rotten, but t-mobile isn't too great either.
i'm calling verizon next, to compare...
tpullen said:
They show up on my bill as "e-note" to the phone number "500."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone is programmed to send an SMS to T-Mobile every time you reboot your PPCPE. These show up as e-notes to 500 just as you describe. Compare the timing of your email use vs. the timing of your reboots and see where the e-notes are coming from. I think you can purchase a bundle of a bunch (500?) of SMS messages (aka e-notes) for something like $2.99, so you could cap your cost that way.
You should also be aware that T-Mobile has gone to a flat rate for GPRS at $19.95 for unlimited internet. The comparable plan with AT&T is something like $80.
i was wondering about upgrading my old phone to a phone that is from a different carrier (Rogers) and it's in a different city (Edmonton, AB {I live in Yellowknife, NT and we only have Bell up here})...
so I have the samsung vice on a uber 25 extended hours plan which includes: 3 way calling, call waiting, sys access fee $6.95, 911 fee $0.75(we don't even have 911 up in Yellowknife), personal email (but it's fcked up and won't work), personal IM (barely use it), 50 bonus minutes. fun 20 with mobile browser included: mobile browser usage, message centre, call display, image messaging, picture messaging, media pack, incl. messages. all for $25 a month.
i was thinking of deleting a few of these features from the mybell site so i could pay less every month but it said I can't customize any of it. :/ and I was going to look at my rate plan and it wasn't even listed there (same with my phone).
but the main thing i was going to ask was if I get the samsung focus and unlock it and put it on bell, how am i going to use it with no data plan? the plan and phone i have now is a really old one, so i don't know what to do. would I be able to add a data plan for like $10 bucks? will Bell get mad at me if I don't use a phone from them?
i'd really appreciate it if you'd help me.
Coming from WinMO 6.5 HD2, I'm nervous about these 500mb tarrifs for data.
T-Mobile has a 500mb limit, with unlimited browsing.
However the 2 are not seperate, so once you have used 500mb in total, you are restricted to browsing only.
No RRS
No Podcasts
No POP3 email
No Twitter (some apps only)
No Google Maps
No Internet radio (!)
Push mail seems to work, as does Opera for browsing.
The HTC RSS app has no download mananger, so my weekly podcast download is about 80mb, but by the 11th of the month I've already over 500mb, as any minor failure during dowload deletes the file and starts again.
What's your SGS2/Android experience in terms of data usage?
En_croute
i easily rack up 3GB a month
but if you disable data completely, and only do WiFi you should be safe
Apparantly we are in the 5% of users
We are called abusers by TMobile
Asked why a we couldn't buy more data time, I was met with :
a) Ohh, difficult to set up to set that up
b) The masts the masts, think of the masts
c) Abusers spoil the t-mobile experience for everyone else
PAC code here we come.
Hello THREE
I have my phone set up to use Wifi when I am at home and WiFi when I am at work. Obviously I set all my podcasts and High Usage apps to Download during those times (Using Tasker)
Outside of that I generally use about 50MB to 100MB on Google Maps, Email, other general background syncing stuff.
I think if you do all of your major syncing over a WiFi connection (Either yours or your neighbours ) then you will be hard pushed to use 500MB whilst "on the go"
En_croute said:
Apparantly we are in the 5% of users
We are called abusers by TMobile
Asked why a we couldn't buy more data time, I was met with :
a) Ohh, difficult to set up to set that up
b) The masts the masts, think of the masts
c) Abusers spoil the t-mobile experience for everyone else
PAC code here we come.
Hello THREE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm assuming you're in the UK as you mentioned 3...
T-Mobile would never say any of the above answers, you're either
a. Trolling
or
b. Making it up
Claiming T-Mobile weren't willing to take more money off you is borderline laughable.
Have fun with Three, quite possibly the most inept customer serviced network i've ever had the displeasure of dealing with.
Edit, just thought i'd add this, if you want details on how to sort out a proper unlimited data package on T-Mobile, PM me.
Actually he really did infer these things!
1. He claimed it would be difficult to set up (programme). I pointed out that as I was on 1gb currently, and the FUP (Browsing only) kicks in after that, it should not be too hard to allow 500mb boosters to be bought ad hoc, or as part of a regular package.
2. He claimed the 5% of users were "ruining the experience" for other customers, hence the 500mb limit. I pointed out that a) if we were all going into FUP, the service would still be "ruined" for the first 1/2 of the month, and b) Why sell media phones when the network is not fit for purpose.
3. And as Orage are selling 750mb & 500mb bolt ons, why can't T-Mobile. He said 5oomb for new customers and 1gb is the maximum, on older tarrifs, and the 3gb tarrif was not available (since Feb 2011).
I was spitting feathers, hence the PAC code comment.
I did consider Three, but went with 1gb data & Flext 35, and will use the first 7 days to asess my data usage under Android during the 7 day cooling off period.
Handset due tomorrow.
I'll PM you, as I have those 7 days....
En_croute
I'll reply here as well so others can see this. If you take out a t-mobile contract with a data booster (those apparently unlimited 5quid ones) call them straight away and say you want to upgrade your data package to web and walk plus for the ENTIRE length of your contract.
They should offer to simply replace your 5 booster with web n walk plus, if they don't, tell them that someone in the t-mobile shop told you it can be done as long as you take it out for the contract duration.
This also will work if you have no data package as well, they'll just charge you the 5 quid a month.
The benefit? HSDPA is not enabled on the standard unlimited boosters, but is on web n walk plus
Hopefully some people can make use of this.
Burko
Even better is WebNWalk Max as the plus is also capped.
All of the above is the reason why I'm also jumping ship to three.
I currently pay T-mobile £40pcm and they want more off me just because I don't think it's fair that they cap my data at 350Kb max.
T-Mob in UK is a joke for data speeds (unless you pay extra on top of your normal tariff price)
So when working out where to go. Make sure you take the extra cost into account and check not only data caps on download amounts but also data caps on speed.
Plus is capped in volume of downloads, not speed. Obviously different people have different data needs, but for me, web n walk plus is more than enough. (with the benefit of not being charged if you go over the limit) there is no"one size fits all" data package, I just thought I'd highlight one option that's available.
Burko
According to O2 I've used 1.99GB As of 23:28 on 12 May 2011 so far this month. Good thing I have unlimited data allowance.
I got a mailer today about consumer cellular. This looks like another alternative for a carrier. I ordered 2 sim cards today and will let you know.
The sims are free, and you can use unlocked gsm phones or previously used phones on att( not unlocked?), with no activation fees- (at least not yet). They charge $35 activation on the phones they sell.
This leads me to believe it uses ATT towers. There was no $$ required to order sims. This carrier is marketed to the senior members of the USA touting AARP discounts- but they are 3rd party discounters, not AARP. It's only 5%. You do have taxes added on just like any other carrier.
Here is what grabbed my interest. Minutes are from PAYG- 25 cents/min, or up to 2400 minutes for $60, or anywhere in between. I'll go for 300 minutes for $20. These minute buckets can be shared by a family plan for an extra $10/phone.
Here is the grabber. You can also get data, the max is 500mb for $30- this includes 5000 text and mms to be shared. They also have 100 text/mms and 10 mb data for $2.50, and others in between. This can also be shared by the family for no extra charges. For non heavy users, this is great. I have not used more than 300 mb, and that was a lot for me. I'm going to set this up with my daughter, who needs ATT service at school and lots of texts. She tried an lg thrive on our ATT plan for less than a day, and they zapped a $30 data plan on- I was really mad. We are both out of contract, so we can leave ATT and try this.
I checked the data service map, and it says 4glte, 3g, and 2g, so maybe we can get lte on this carrier?
This may work well for us. For $55, plus extra taxes that I'm not quite sure of, we can have minutes and a good hunk of data with 5000 text/mms.
Did I mention no contract??? And you can change your plans as many times as you want to get the lowest plan for your needs for the month. Or increase if the need increases to avoid overage charges. And CC will send you notices of your use. I'll let you know how it goes, at least for 1 month.
I am in no way asso with consumer cellular, I don't know anyone who uses them, and would like some feedback from someone who does! But this looks like a good way to cut our ATT bill and get another smartphone on board.
Update- If you are using your own phones, there is no activation charges. The sims are free, and you have 30 days or 30 minutes to try out the service. If you are a member of AARP, it goes 45 days or 45 minutes for evaluation. You can cancel with no charges if it doesn't work out. I have 2 sims on their way. I spoke to a CR, I can port our numbers if it works for us.
If messaging was not bundled with the data connect, it wouldn't pay for us to switch. That's a bonus that ATT makes you pay more for. (my daughter's texts are in the 1000's). ATT costs- Family messaging $30- data for 2 smartphones- $30+$30=$60- plus your minute talk plan on top. Varies with your plan.We'll just call ours $10+$10=$20.(family add ons).
If this is how CC says, a better option $ wise. I will let you guys know. NJ taxes are about 14%.
Here's a link to ranking of hidden state and federal taxes tacked onto your wireless bill
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/27059.html
I think the important part is you're excited and have your needs, coverage and usage calculated.
I used CS more than 10 years ago with very satisfactory results. Tmo came up with a family plan and phones I wanted so I switched and have stayed every since.
So while I can't address the plans or coverage, I can at least to CS reliability.
here's the deal
First- all the CSR are native english speakers. No problem in communicating.
2nd. I got my sims. The clock on the 30 day eval starts when you place your order. I got 2 different answers to this question- so play it safe if you just want to get the free 30 days to see if it works. If you are a single and don't need alot of data, the rates are good- not any better if you take the 500mb plan over t-mo or straight talk. If you have 2 or more, than this will be economical, only because txt, mms, and data are in a shared bucket. This will run less than 2 separate plans on straight talk, about the same with 2 $30 tmo plans.
Voice works right away. I played with my iphone 3gs OS 5.0.1 and got data and mms working without any help from CSR. unlockit.co.nz via safari apn changer. I am waiting on an email from apple to unlock it. New this month.
UPDATE- Got my email from att/apple. All I had to do is a shift/restore to keep my jailbreak on 5.0.1 via my sn0wbreeze restore file. It restores, reloads, and when it reboots, I got a congratulations- your iphone is unlocked! Still on 5.0.1 with cydia and jailbreak.
I know- this is not android- but a great way to reuse/sell/pass down an unlocked jailbroken phone.
On my daughters thrive, I couldn't get data or mms working, go thru their set up, you put in the imei of your phone that is non-consumer cellular and the set up will say problem with data- please call. On her thrive- which was bought as a PAYG att phone, no problem- he flipped a switch, had me turn her phone on, and it was up and running. Any android OS less than ICS, there is an app called Tweakker in the market- it will reset your apn for mms to work. If you get the message from this program your settings were not changed, there is a problem, you have to call and get your data turned on.
Here's is the potential problem. On my Note, I called with the same expectations of them flipping the switch and turning on data. NOT SO. She said non consumer cellular phones were not supported. I said that I just got it working on the thrive. She said they sell the thrive, but I told her this was an att thrive, not CC. I was told the Note is not supported and I will not be able to use it with their carrier. WHAT???? So I asked about terminating the billing- even tho it's no contract, you will get billed every month after your service is completed. That's where your 30 day free eval comes in and you shouldn't have to pay that 1st bill if you cancel your service with them before those 30 days. The CSR was quite indignant when I asked about this. She said,"You'll cancel just because 1 phone won't work with data?" I told her I got this service specifically for this phone and if it doesn't work, then I can't use it. She was quite exasperated and said fine. I told her I will not cancel now, I just wanted to know the specifics of how to avoid paying that first bill and thanked her and hung up.
Took my sim out of my Note- and put it into a thrive from ATT- and changed my imei # in the account status. I called again, and had them get data working on the sim with the thrive. This CSR asked me if I knew about changing the settings to get mms working. (well, she had a clue!) I said yes I did and thank you very much. My thrive's 3g kicked in, and I said thanks again. This trick should work with any unlocked gsm or locked att phone that is not on their restricted list. Any Messaging phone should work- we know the Iphone and the Note won't work for this work around. I wonder how many more ATT added to their restricted list- since CC runs on their towers.
Took out the sim from the thrive, put it in my Note, and WHAT DO YOU KNOW?
I have 4G data flowing on my note!!!!
One of the CSR that got the first thrive going with data was perplexed -said the iphone should not work on their system. I told him I knew how to change the settings and got it to work. I had data, mms, and voice working.
So, If you know how to work the system, you can get the Note working with Consumer cellular. This might be a good work around till a reliable t-mo radio is released after the Note moves to tmobile. Only thing is you are limited to 500 mb of data. They don't sell more than that and will hit you with huge overage charges if you do go over so I wouldn't recommend streaming video and radio all the time. I never went over 300 mb with ATT with my data on all the time for email and occaisional web browsing, and an occ. tether session.
I hope I have answered some of the questions you might have had about this carrier Consumer Cellular. Again, the only reason I checked them out was ATT tacked on a $30 data plan when my daughter tried out the thrive for 1 day. I was not too happy. Between just the 2 of us, this $30+$30 for data alone covers the cost of the highest bill we would get from CC cause the data, text, and minutes are shared. That's for 300 min., 5000 text/mms, and 500 mb data.
Works out to about $57. with the 14% extras here in NJ. Still better than with ATT when you start adding smartphone data. It may be better this summer when ATT adds family shared data buckets. There is no price structure out on that yet.
sashusmom said:
I got a mailer today about consumer cellular. This looks like another alternative for a carrier. I ordered 2 sim cards today and will let you know.
The sims are free, and you can use unlocked gsm phones or previously used phones on att( not unlocked?), with no activation fees- (at least not yet). They charge $35 activation on the phones they sell.
This leads me to believe it uses ATT towers. There was no $$ required to order sims. This carrier is marketed to the senior members of the USA touting AARP discounts- but they are 3rd party discounters, not AARP. It's only 5%. You do have taxes added on just like any other carrier.
Here is what grabbed my interest. Minutes are from PAYG- 25 cents/min, or up to 2400 minutes for $60, or anywhere in between. I'll go for 300 minutes for $20. These minute buckets can be shared by a family plan for an extra $10/phone.
Here is the grabber. You can also get data, the max is 500mb for $30- this includes 5000 text and mms to be shared. They also have 100 text/mms and 10 mb data for $2.50, and others in between. This can also be shared by the family for no extra charges. For non heavy users, this is great. I have not used more than 300 mb, and that was a lot for me. I'm going to set this up with my daughter, who needs ATT service at school and lots of texts. She tried an lg thrive on our ATT plan for less than a day, and they zapped a $30 data plan on- I was really mad. We are both out of contract, so we can leave ATT and try this.
I checked the data service map, and it says 4glte, 3g, and 2g, so maybe we can get lte on this carrier?
This may work well for us. For $55, plus extra taxes that I'm not quite sure of, we can have minutes and a good hunk of data with 5000 text/mms.
Did I mention no contract??? And you can change your plans as many times as you want to get the lowest plan for your needs for the month. Or increase if the need increases to avoid overage charges. And CC will send you notices of your use. I'll let you know how it goes, at least for 1 month.
I am in no way asso with consumer cellular, I don't know anyone who uses them, and would like some feedback from someone who does! But this looks like a good way to cut our ATT bill and get another smartphone on board.
Update- If you are using your own phones, there is no activation charges. The sims are free, and you have 30 days or 30 minutes to try out the service. If you are a member of AARP, it goes 45 days or 45 minutes for evaluation. You can cancel with no charges if it doesn't work out. I have 2 sims on their way. I spoke to a CR, I can port our numbers if it works for us.
If messaging was not bundled with the data connect, it wouldn't pay for us to switch. That's a bonus that ATT makes you pay more for. (my daughter's texts are in the 1000's). ATT costs- Family messaging $30- data for 2 smartphones- $30+$30=$60- plus your minute talk plan on top. Varies with your plan.We'll just call ours $10+$10=$20.(family add ons).
If this is how CC says, a better option $ wise. I will let you guys know. NJ taxes are about 14%.
Here's a link to ranking of hidden state and federal taxes tacked onto your wireless bill
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/27059.html
First- all the CSR are native english speakers. No problem in communicating.
2nd. I got my sims. The clock on the 30 day eval starts when you place your order. I got 2 different answers to this question- so play it safe if you just want to get the free 30 days to see if it works. If you are a single and don't need alot of data, the rates are good- not any better if you take the 500mb plan over t-mo or straight talk. If you have 2 or more, than this will be economical, only because txt, mms, and data are in a shared bucket. This will run less than 2 separate plans on straight talk, about the same with 2 $30 tmo plans.
Voice works right away. I played with my iphone 3gs OS 5.0.1 and got data and mms working without any help from CSR. unlockit.co.nz via safari apn changer. I am waiting on an email from apple to unlock it. New this month.
UPDATE- Got my email from att/apple. All I had to do is a shift/restore to keep my jailbreak on 5.0.1 via my sn0wbreeze restore file. It restores, reloads, and when it reboots, I got a congratulations- your iphone is unlocked! Still on 5.0.1 with cydia and jailbreak.
I know- this is not android- but a great way to reuse/sell/pass down an unlocked jailbroken phone.
On my daughters thrive, I couldn't get data or mms working, go thru their set up, you put in the imei of your phone that is non-consumer cellular and the set up will say problem with data- please call. On her thrive- which was bought as a PAYG att phone, no problem- he flipped a switch, had me turn her phone on, and it was up and running. Any android OS less than ICS, there is an app called Tweakker in the market- it will reset your apn for mms to work. If you get the message from this program your settings were not changed, there is a problem, you have to call and get your data turned on.
Here's is the potential problem. On my Note, I called with the same expectations of them flipping the switch and turning on data. NOT SO. She said non consumer cellular phones were not supported. I said that I just got it working on the thrive. She said they sell the thrive, but I told her this was an att thrive, not CC. I was told the Note is not supported and I will not be able to use it with their carrier. WHAT???? So I asked about terminating the billing- even tho it's no contract, you will get billed every month after your service is completed. That's where your 30 day free eval comes in and you shouldn't have to pay that 1st bill if you cancel your service with them before those 30 days. The CSR was quite indignant when I asked about this. She said,"You'll cancel just because 1 phone won't work with data?" I told her I got this service specifically for this phone and if it doesn't work, then I can't use it. She was quite exasperated and said fine. I told her I will not cancel now, I just wanted to know the specifics of how to avoid paying that first bill and thanked her and hung up.
Took my sim out of my Note- and put it into a thrive from ATT- and changed my imei # in the account status. I called again, and had them get data working on the sim with the thrive. This CSR asked me if I knew about changing the settings to get mms working. (well, she had a clue!) I said yes I did and thank you very much. My thrive's 3g kicked in, and I said thanks again. This trick should work with any unlocked gsm or locked att phone that is not on their restricted list. Any Messaging phone should work- we know the Iphone and the Note won't work for this work around. I wonder how many more ATT added to their restricted list- since CC runs on their towers.
Took out the sim from the thrive, put it in my Note, and WHAT DO YOU KNOW?
I have 4G data flowing on my note!!!!
One of the CSR that got the first thrive going with data was perplexed -said the iphone should not work on their system. I told him I knew how to change the settings and got it to work. I had data, mms, and voice working.
So, If you know how to work the system, you can get the Note working with Consumer cellular. This might be a good work around till a reliable t-mo radio is released after the Note moves to tmobile. Only thing is you are limited to 500 mb of data. They don't sell more than that and will hit you with huge overage charges if you do go over so I wouldn't recommend streaming video and radio all the time. I never went over 300 mb with ATT with my data on all the time for email and occaisional web browsing, and an occ. tether session.
I hope I have answered some of the questions you might have had about this carrier Consumer Cellular. Again, the only reason I checked them out was ATT tacked on a $30 data plan when my daughter tried out the thrive for 1 day. I was not too happy. Between just the 2 of us, this $30+$30 for data alone covers the cost of the highest bill we would get from CC cause the data, text, and minutes are shared. That's for 300 min., 5000 text/mms, and 500 mb data.
Works out to about $57. with the 14% extras here in NJ. Still better than with ATT when you start adding smartphone data. It may be better this summer when ATT adds family shared data buckets. There is no price structure out on that yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HOLY DISSERTATION!...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
tyler79durdan said:
HOLY DISSERTATION!...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL.....I try to be thorough if I put it out here. And only 1 response, so I kept adding on!!!!!! Only way I can give back Batman! Thanks for reading the WHOLE thing. HaHa
This experiment works OK. I have a small problem with speed tests. Out of 4 tests, every DL speed was .01 mbps with decent uploads of 1-2.19
Tim suggested I try a different radio, but not sure which one, or how to get back to this one- I have the original att stock radio file from GB, but not the ICS one.
My phone was flashed to Verizon prepaid since November of last year and everything(3g mobile data, text, MMS) and all of a sudden today I got a data call failure error message 89 and the mobile data is not working all of a sudden and my phone can only make calls and text while roaming. Is there something I can do to fix this?
Verizon Wireless send new A-Key and AAA Password to combat flashing
So you know im in a wireless family.
I work at T-Mobile Corporate in Redmond, And my brother in New Jersey at verizon.
I personally use an optimus G SPRINT on Verizon Prepaid, Not that I dont like the T-Mobile speed, But lets be honest coverage sucks.
So the 1.5 to 2.5 MBPS nationwide I get on verizon is better. OK Back on point.
So my brother tells me Verizon is actively trying to combat the MIFI flashed to verizon prepaid, On mulitple fronts.
They have contacted ebay, and ebay sellers have been suspended.
And here is the one that sucks for all of us that use verizon prepaid.... They renew and send a new AAA Key every 4 to 7 days.....
And may also resend or renew the A-Key.
What that means for you if you are a verizon prepaid user and have a flashed phone but not the donor...... You sadly are screwed.
But I'm going to give you an easy fix, I have had to do it now twice.
You can also use QPST build 355 works for me, and copy all the data from the gusto to the other device.
Sadly my brother said they are not doing this targeting phone users, Verizon is not stupid they know people flash phones.
But they are targeting JETPACK and MIFI users.
He says in recent weeks they have seen Prepaid accounts that are using over 80GB of data a month on these supposed GUSTO's
So naturally verizon is now cracking down, This is similar to what Sprint and Boost Mobile did with ERROR 16.
Just giving you a heads up, And to flashers who flash the MiFi devices, Verizon is actively searching Craigslist and eBay, One eBay seller is now being sued by verizon and they found him on Craigslist in Salem, Oregon.
Just be careful, I use about 15GB a month on my Optimus and dont have any issues, Beyond having to reflash the info using the guide above once a week or so.
I also have seen less AAA resets when I keep the ROM Stock, And more resets and having to reflash when I got to a custom rom.
Hope this helps.
Yeah, it's a pain in the ass for sure...I have, let's say, X Amount of flashed phones around the country...and have been racking my brain trying to make sense out of it...and there's definitely theories all over the place but as this gentleman has described, the phones losing 3g is just collateral damage. I will say that less than 20% of my phones seem to be affected...I have found certain areas to be more troublesome than others, but if flashed correctly the data use doesn't even show up on Verizons side...but that's a different discussion all together. I've seen phones that had to have the data reprogrammed only once about 2 months ago & have not been bothered since, some that have only lasted a few hours each time it was done...it's completely up to Verizon at this point - I think they're rolling the keys based off tower output more than on a schedule though...if a particular tower seems to be sucking up a lot of data (because they can see it from an infastructure level) then they roll the keys on everything connected to that tower. I'm sure they're doing it on some sort of schedule as well, but the truth is, out of all of the devices that I have access to and have been logging behavior on, there is no real pattern at this point.
I honestly don't think they'll keep it up though after they find the heavy duty data abusers. Fiscally it will hurt them badly. As an example, in the past month I've moved about 30 customers from VZPP to an alternate carrier...I'm certain it's a safe assumption that I'm probably one of 10,000 (at least) in the US that do this type of thing on the same scale. If each of us move 30 accounts per month, that's 1.5 million per month in lost revenue per month that they're going to sustain just based off my estimate. That's not counting the 5 here, 5 there, couple over there, etc that are DIYers, etc. I'm guessing my estimate is probably very low...but for the sake of argument it's 1.5 Million in revenue a month that they don't have to advertise for, they don't have to provide tech support for, no customer service, no out of pocket cost except maintenance that they already do anyway. The network is still super fast & reliable, so they're nowhere near capacity obviously, so the beancounters at some point are going to have to evaluate which is the lesser of the two evils and I think the key rolling is going to be the greater. If my estimate is correct, that's 18 million per year in recurring revenue that they get on a total "no sweat" deal - I don't care how big a company is, you can't afford that loss.
It's also a safe assumption that they don't care much about the phones...I know, with my own infastructure knowledge, that given a month with their internal network and I could easily identify 80% or more of the flashed phones operating on it and remove them...considering they have a huge team of IT people and endless resources if they wanted them gone, they would be gone.
I honestly believe that this will eventually blow over as long as the flagrant abusers aren't shoving it in their faces and neener neener neenering them to death with the MiFi's which I've even seen for sale "No Bill" style on Amazon...
and people wonder why it's getting harder & harder to get answers, guides, etc from people that frontline this type of thing....hell I've seen laptops for sale on eBay with downloaded software & guides from this very site as well as others on how to flash "Item X" in a complete do it yourself bundle...then people that selfishly made a couple hundred bucks doing it cry because their stuff don't work anymore.
I figured out a couple of alternate ways to combat it very quickly, and some other solutions to keep people in the unlimited plans cheap but am afraid if I share it openly then it's just going to go viral and cause the same problems again...it wouldn't upset me at all if there were a more advanced "pay section" of this site for the serious people to share with each other & keep this type of thing under control. Just a thought.
androidjunkie71 said:
Yeah, it's a pain in the ass for sure...I have, let's say, X Amount of flashed phones around the country...and have been racking my brain trying to make sense out of it...and there's definitely theories all over the place but as this gentleman has described, the phones losing 3g is just collateral damage. I will say that less than 20% of my phones seem to be affected...I have found certain areas to be more troublesome than others, but if flashed correctly the data use doesn't even show up on Verizons side...but that's a different discussion all together. I've seen phones that had to have the data reprogrammed only once about 2 months ago & have not been bothered since, some that have only lasted a few hours each time it was done...it's completely up to Verizon at this point - I think they're rolling the keys based off tower output more than on a schedule though...if a particular tower seems to be sucking up a lot of data (because they can see it from an infastructure level) then they roll the keys on everything connected to that tower. I'm sure they're doing it on some sort of schedule as well, but the truth is, out of all of the devices that I have access to and have been logging behavior on, there is no real pattern at this point.
I honestly don't think they'll keep it up though after they find the heavy duty data abusers. Fiscally it will hurt them badly. As an example, in the past month I've moved about 30 customers from VZPP to an alternate carrier...I'm certain it's a safe assumption that I'm probably one of 10,000 (at least) in the US that do this type of thing on the same scale. If each of us move 30 accounts per month, that's 1.5 million per month in lost revenue per month that they're going to sustain just based off my estimate. That's not counting the 5 here, 5 there, couple over there, etc that are DIYers, etc. I'm guessing my estimate is probably very low...but for the sake of argument it's 1.5 Million in revenue a month that they don't have to advertise for, they don't have to provide tech support for, no customer service, no out of pocket cost except maintenance that they already do anyway. The network is still super fast & reliable, so they're nowhere near capacity obviously, so the beancounters at some point are going to have to evaluate which is the lesser of the two evils and I think the key rolling is going to be the greater. If my estimate is correct, that's 18 million per year in recurring revenue that they get on a total "no sweat" deal - I don't care how big a company is, you can't afford that loss.
It's also a safe assumption that they don't care much about the phones...I know, with my own infastructure knowledge, that given a month with their internal network and I could easily identify 80% or more of the flashed phones operating on it and remove them...considering they have a huge team of IT people and endless resources if they wanted them gone, they would be gone.
I honestly believe that this will eventually blow over as long as the flagrant abusers aren't shoving it in their faces and neener neener neenering them to death with the MiFi's which I've even seen for sale "No Bill" style on Amazon...
and people wonder why it's getting harder & harder to get answers, guides, etc from people that frontline this type of thing....hell I've seen laptops for sale on eBay with downloaded software & guides from this very site as well as others on how to flash "Item X" in a complete do it yourself bundle...then people that selfishly made a couple hundred bucks doing it cry because their stuff don't work anymore.
I figured out a couple of alternate ways to combat it very quickly, and some other solutions to keep people in the unlimited plans cheap but am afraid if I share it openly then it's just going to go viral and cause the same problems again...it wouldn't upset me at all if there were a more advanced "pay section" of this site for the serious people to share with each other & keep this type of thing under control. Just a thought.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And your whole point is? This poor individual is trying to find some help and apparently he is not getting anything. Instead you should write a guide on how to extract more data from the Gusto in order to receive the new keys properly. It has happened to me before but speed increased after unlocking the phone. I was on the 35/plan before and it gave me the same error, it lasts for about 2 days and then error 89 shows up, sometimes a day, that was before. I'm unsure why they keep doing this and why isn't the flashed phone getting the new key automatically like the Gusto 2. There must be a way to make this work.
I'm still trying to figure out why Verizon is cracking down on flashed phones when that's clearly more customers.
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
Sprint code
I gota the error 16 code when I obtained s-off. Everything worked but text an call it took me to sprint. I just told the lady I did a hard reset to clear all my data. She said ok you r all set now have a good day. RT away text starting coming thru. I did read the due security with radio firmware. Someone else said it's just a way to log users. Idk myself I due know she ask no questions She already knew why I was calling.
so..mmm, where is the easy fix???
TechSoft said:
What that means for you if you are a verizon prepaid user and have a flashed phone but not the donor...... You sadly are screwed.
But I'm going to give you an easy fix, I have had to do it now twice.
You can also use QPST build 355 works for me, and copy all the data from the gusto to the other device.
I also have seen less AAA resets when I keep the ROM Stock, And more resets and having to reflash when I got to a custom rom.
hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have a vzw 3g phone wich i used to pull the data settings and i have the gusto in its package.
so what can I do... how does the easy fix works??
error 8998 unknown fix!
I USED A VERIZON 3G PHONE (a galaxy 1) I changed the esn/meid using dfs .
It went to the activation process.. no data
did factory reset.
Once rebooted I got 3g.
put it on the computer again and using DFS i looked and there was like 6 new PASSWORDS!!!
PAP, PPP, HDR AN, HDR AN LONG , HDR AN PPP AND The ones where the profile is edited.
i simply reflashed my d710 with the new info and got go sms for the mms.
Working good as usual
gigaferz said:
I USED A VERIZON 3G PHONE (a galaxy 1) I changed the esn/meid using dfs .
It went to the activation process.. no data
did factory reset.
Once rebooted I got 3g.
put it on the computer again and using DFS i looked and there was like 6 new PASSWORDS!!!
PAP, PPP, HDR AN, HDR AN LONG , HDR AN PPP AND The ones where the profile is edited.
i simply reflashed my d710 with the new info and got go sms for the mms.
Working good as usual
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Verizon changed again the passwords.... thanks to my fascinate i got everything again... but the flash doesnt work anymore with my d710 sprint phone... looks like verizon added more security..
im stuck using my old i500...
susy1990 said:
My phone was flashed to Verizon prepaid since November of last year and everything(3g mobile data, text, MMS) and all of a sudden today I got a data call failure error message 89 and the mobile data is not working all of a sudden and my phone can only make calls and text while roaming. Is there something I can do to fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on the same boot, i keep getting error 89 and my phone is on roaming, unfortunately i don't have the donor
---------- Post added at 03:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:29 PM ----------
susy1990 said:
My phone was flashed to Verizon prepaid since November of last year and everything(3g mobile data, text, MMS) and all of a sudden today I got a data call failure error message 89 and the mobile data is not working all of a sudden and my phone can only make calls and text while roaming. Is there something I can do to fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TechSoft said:
So you know im in a wireless family.
I work at T-Mobile Corporate in Redmond, And my brother in New Jersey at verizon.
I personally use an optimus G SPRINT on Verizon Prepaid, Not that I dont like the T-Mobile speed, But lets be honest coverage sucks.
So the 1.5 to 2.5 MBPS nationwide I get on verizon is better. OK Back on point.
So my brother tells me Verizon is actively trying to combat the MIFI flashed to verizon prepaid, On mulitple fronts.
They have contacted ebay, and ebay sellers have been suspended.
And here is the one that sucks for all of us that use verizon prepaid.... They renew and send a new AAA Key every 4 to 7 days.....
And may also resend or renew the A-Key.
What that means for you if you are a verizon prepaid user and have a flashed phone but not the donor...... You sadly are screwed.
But I'm going to give you an easy fix, I have had to do it now twice.
You can also use QPST build 355 works for me, and copy all the data from the gusto to the other device.
Sadly my brother said they are not doing this targeting phone users, Verizon is not stupid they know people flash phones.
But they are targeting JETPACK and MIFI users.
He says in recent weeks they have seen Prepaid accounts that are using over 80GB of data a month on these supposed GUSTO's
So naturally verizon is now cracking down, This is similar to what Sprint and Boost Mobile did with ERROR 16.
Just giving you a heads up, And to flashers who flash the MiFi devices, Verizon is actively searching Craigslist and eBay, One eBay seller is now being sued by verizon and they found him on Craigslist in Salem, Oregon.
Just be careful, I use about 15GB a month on my Optimus and dont have any issues, Beyond having to reflash the info using the guide above once a week or so.
I also have seen less AAA resets when I keep the ROM Stock, And more resets and having to reflash when I got to a custom rom.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's not what the OP asked