Good inexpensive plan for a unlocked Galaxy Nexus?

pwrusr

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Subject title pretty much says it all.

The HTC Evo V about to be launched at the end of the month on virgin I think it's time I upgrade from my optimus V. My thought is "shoot for $100 more I can get the Nexus... I wonder what I can get as far as plans go?". And so this thread come to be :D

My budget isn't much by most cell phone companies standards, but I think it's reasonable...
What can ~$40/month get me?

Much more then $40/month isn't worth it to me as I currently pay $25/month with virgin mobile and get 300 minutes, unlimited texts and data.
 
$30/mo, T-Mo 100 minutes/unlimTXT/5GB data
$45/mo, StraightTalk unlim minutes/unlimTXT/"unlimited"2GB data
$60/mo, T-Mo unlim minutes/unlimTXT/2GB data
$80/mo, T-Mo unlim minutes/unlimTXT/5GB data
 
For $10 more, you can bump the $30 T-mobile plan to 250 minutes. Personally, I like the Straight Talk plan, uses AT&T's network, but if T-Mobile is great in your area, you have a choice.
 
$30/mo, T-Mo 100 minutes/unlimTXT/5GB data
$45/mo, StraightTalk unlim minutes/unlimTXT/"unlimited"2GB data
$60/mo, T-Mo unlim minutes/unlimTXT/2GB data
$80/mo, T-Mo unlim minutes/unlimTXT/5GB data

For $10 more, you can bump the $30 T-mobile plan to 250 minutes. Personally, I like the Straight Talk plan, uses AT&T's network, but if T-Mobile is great in your area, you have a choice.

Thanks guys! Those look like solid choices for plans.:cool:
 
For $10 more, you can bump the $30 T-mobile plan to 250 minutes. Personally, I like the Straight Talk plan, uses AT&T's network, but if T-Mobile is great in your area, you have a choice.
I thought straight talk was a T-mo MVNO :confused:

EDIT: my mistake, confused it with Simple Mobile
 
For $10 more, you can bump the $30 T-mobile plan to 250 minutes. Personally, I like the Straight Talk plan, uses AT&T's network, but if T-Mobile is great in your area, you have a choice.

how do you add this? i currently have the $30 5 gb plan and groove ip is not reliable enough for me so im running out of minutes.
 
how do you add this? i currently have the $30 5 gb plan and groove ip is not reliable enough for me so im running out of minutes.

I looked into this too and realized that even if I do go over my 100 minutes, I likely won't go over far enough to incur an additional $10 in charges. I'd rather just pay for what I use than pay more per month for minutes I may end up not using.
 
105 pages! :eek:
Epic thread, Though the first page's posts answered most of my questions. Thanks for the link! :cool:


how do you add this? i currently have the $30 5 gb plan and groove ip is not reliable enough for me so im running out of minutes.
I'm also wondering about that. As cool as Groove IP is I think I'd rather get straight voice from the celco.
BTW, How are the speeds on the t-mobile 5GB plan?

I looked into this too and realized that even if I do go over my 100 minutes, I likely won't go over far enough to incur an additional $10 in charges. I'd rather just pay for what I use than pay more per month for minutes I may end up not using.
How far over the 100 minutes can you go without incurring the additional $10 fee? I personally talk ~250 minutes a month so I don't know if that plan would work for me.
 
I'm also wondering about that. As cool as Groove IP is I think I'd rather get straight voice from the celco.
BTW, How are the speeds on the t-mobile 5GB plan?

It's freakin' badassed so far. I get up to 10Mb down in Houston, usually around 2Mb up. Nice step up from 200Kb down on Sprint.

How far over the 100 minutes can you go without incurring the additional $10 fee? I personally talk ~250 minutes a month so I don't know if that plan would work for me.

I'm wanting to say it's 10c a minute after the 100 minutes that come with the plan. So if you go over 200 minutes every single month it might be beneficial to you to upgrade the plan.

For me personally it doesn't make sense, since if I do go over it's only by 10 or 20 minutes.
 
I also get 10mb here on tmobile houston.

Been testing it for a month, before i make the decision to port my tmobile number to google

1) No mms. no success getting msg to google voice number
2) Groove IP voice drops out during driving. (currently trying talkatone)
 
It's freakin' badassed so far. I get up to 10Mb down in Houston, usually around 2Mb up. Nice step up from 200Kb down on Sprint.

I'm wanting to say it's 10c a minute after the 100 minutes that come with the plan. So if you go over 200 minutes every single month it might be beneficial to you to upgrade the plan.

For me personally it doesn't make sense, since if I do go over it's only by 10 or 20 minutes.
Wow, 10Mb?! That kills the speeds I get out of my Optimus V on Virgin (best I've gotten is !1.2Mb/s).

That's not too bad if I keep it under 200 minutes talk time I still pay less.


I also get 10mb here on tmobile houston.

Been testing it for a month, before i make the decision to port my tmobile number to google

1) No mms. no success getting msg to google voice number
2) Groove IP voice drops out during driving. (currently trying talkatone)
Let me know how Talkatone works out for you. I'd be very interested in hearing the results.


this.

Best thread ever for unlocked phones on cheap pre-paid plans. Fuck the carriers :mad: Why pay double the price for no reason. Go with Straight Talk, fully unlimited for $45/month.
No kidding! I'm glad that thread was posted, still learning a bit about the subject :D :cool:

And yeah, the carriers aren't getting another dime from me. I was paying around $90/month for pretty much the same service I'm getting from virgin moble for $25/month.

How's the speeds on Straight talk?
 
Wow, 10Mb?! That kills the speeds I get out of my Optimus V on Virgin (best I've gotten is !1.2Mb/s).

That's not too bad if I keep it under 200 minutes talk time I still pay less.



Let me know how Talkatone works out for you. I'd be very interested in hearing the results.



No kidding! I'm glad that thread was posted, still learning a bit about the subject :D :cool:

And yeah, the carriers aren't getting another dime from me. I was paying around $90/month for pretty much the same service I'm getting from virgin moble for $25/month.

How's the speeds on Straight talk?
If you're happy with Virgin, they'll be releasing the HTC Evo V (rebadged HTC Evo 3D) on May 31st for $299. It will offer 4g on Sprint's WiMAX network, and looks like one of the best no-contract phones you can get, along with the Galaxy Nexus.
 
this.

Best thread ever for unlocked phones on cheap pre-paid plans. Fuck the carriers :mad: Why pay double the price for no reason. Go with Straight Talk, fully unlimited for $45/month.

I'm going to have to correct you there, the StraightTalk BYOD program IS NOT unlimited. You are limited to 2GB/month and actually 100MB/day before they either throttle or completely disable your data. The only part that is unlimited is web surfing, as asinine as that is.

I'd rather pay more for a defined limit, than to be sold 'unlimited' that is far too limited.
 
If you're happy with Virgin, they'll be releasing the HTC Evo V (rebadged HTC Evo 3D) on May 31st for $299. It will offer 4g on Sprint's WiMAX network, and looks like one of the best no-contract phones you can get, along with the Galaxy Nexus.
Yep I know that's coming out. Should be just about a week until it comes to market. I kinda touched on that in the OP ;)

But then I thought, "Shoot! a hundred bucks more and I can have a Galaxy Nexus... Gee, I wonder what kinda plans there are out there for the GN...".

I'm going to have to correct you there, the StraightTalk BYOD program IS NOT unlimited. You are limited to 2GB/month and actually 100MB/day before they either throttle or completely disable your data. The only part that is unlimited is web surfing, as asinine as that is.

I'd rather pay more for a defined limit, than to be sold 'unlimited' that is far too limited.
OUCH, that just sucks! Unless someone else can give me a reason to go with them I'll be avoiding this company.

Looks like T-Mobile has the best PAYG service deal so far...
 
Yep I know that's coming out. Should be just about a week until it comes to market. I kinda touched on that in the OP ;)

But then I thought, "Shoot! a hundred bucks more and I can have a Galaxy Nexus... Gee, I wonder what kinda plans there are out there for the GN...".


OUCH, that just sucks! Unless someone else can give me a reason to go with them I'll be avoiding this company.

Looks like T-Mobile has the best PAYG service deal so far...
Sorry, didn't go back and read the OP. Then you know that if you get the Evo V, you won't be able to keep the $25/month?
 
Sorry, didn't go back and read the OP. Then you know that if you get the Evo V, you won't be able to keep the $25/month?
I'm guessing I would have to get the $35/month plan with it. which in all honesty really isn't all that bad.
 
I'm guessing I would have to get the $35/month plan with it. which in all honesty really isn't all that bad.
I'm in the same boat. My son is taking over my Optimus V on the $25 plan, so I need a new phone. I've looked at both the GN and the Evo, and I like the Evo more. Plus I live in the KC area, so Sprint coverage is pretty good.
 
I'm in the same boat. My son is taking over my Optimus V on the $25 plan, so I need a new phone. I've looked at both the GN and the Evo, and I like the Evo more. Plus I live in the KC area, so Sprint coverage is pretty good.
Yeah Virgin/Sprint coverage has been outstanding for me everywhere I go. At work it's spotty, but if I go to the right bathroom I can still get enough coverage to surf the net :p

I'll compare the two phones side by side and see which one comes out on top. The thing that I like about the GN is the fact that it runs vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich. I really like how it runs on my tablet and being able to get updates quickly is a big sticking point for the GN.
 
I've been mostly satisfied with the T-Mobile plan. The only issue I've had is when driving from Houston to Baton Rouge coverage is pretty spotty, whereas my wife's Straight Talk connection (AT&T network) was rock solid even out in the boonies between.

Still though, for $35 it's pretty awesome. I get great coverage and speed in the city I live, so I'll put up with no rural coverage for those savings.

One thing to note, we were streaming music via TuneIn over her Straight Talk connection the entire 5 hour ride there and then back a few days later. Had to have used a few hundred MBs each of those days with no ill effect so far.
 
One thing to note, we were streaming music via TuneIn over her Straight Talk connection the entire 5 hour ride there and then back a few days later. Had to have used a few hundred MBs each of those days with no ill effect so far.

That's a perfect testament to how completely random Straight Talk is. Some people get harassed for using hardly any data, but others can stream for hours, download huge files, and never hear a peep from them.

Personally, I'd rather not take my chances. I'm on the $60 T-Mobile plan - which works out to about $55 because I buy my refills online - and I'm glad to know my limit. I saw in a thread at HowardForums that T-Mobile throttles you down to GPRS rather than EDGE after you go over your limit, so I'm considering switching to Red Pocket after my current balance expires. It's the same price for a better network, and GPRS is so slow that I wouldn't miss it.
 
Either TMo prepaid or Family Mobile

Family Mobile works out to around $53 / month after taxes. The throttling seems to be different on there after the high speed ends. I've seen it drop to 1Mb/s, which isn't bad.

Or just add $10-40 worth of family data add-ons.

Just say no to Straight Talk - absolute crap customer service, completely incomprehensible. Lose phone numbers all the time and their default solution to all problems is to send you a new SIM card...which takes 3-5 days, while in the mean time your service goes inactive or your number is lost. Yes.. I've had to help many people with this lol..

edit: oh, if you choose one of the T-Mobile ones, make sure your phone is the TMo one so you'll get 3/"4G"
 
Family Mobile drops to .9Mb/s after only 250MB of usage. How do I know this? They set me up on one of those plans when I asked them for the T-Mobile $30 one.
 
I've been mostly satisfied with the T-Mobile plan. The only issue I've had is when driving from Houston to Baton Rouge coverage is pretty spotty, whereas my wife's Straight Talk connection (AT&T network) was rock solid even out in the boonies between.

Still though, for $35 it's pretty awesome. I get great coverage and speed in the city I live, so I'll put up with no rural coverage for those savings.

One thing to note, we were streaming music via TuneIn over her Straight Talk connection the entire 5 hour ride there and then back a few days later. Had to have used a few hundred MBs each of those days with no ill effect so far.
What plan does she have with straight talk?

That's a perfect testament to how completely random Straight Talk is. Some people get harassed for using hardly any data, but others can stream for hours, download huge files, and never hear a peep from them.

Personally, I'd rather not take my chances. I'm on the $60 T-Mobile plan - which works out to about $55 because I buy my refills online - and I'm glad to know my limit. I saw in a thread at HowardForums that T-Mobile throttles you down to GPRS rather than EDGE after you go over your limit, so I'm considering switching to Red Pocket after my current balance expires. It's the same price for a better network, and GPRS is so slow that I wouldn't miss it.
That's kinda lame to throttle down that much, but I think if I did go with tmo's plan I'd get the $30/mo that offers 5GB of data. I rarely use more then a few gigs currently so I should be safe.

Either TMo prepaid or Family Mobile

Family Mobile works out to around $53 / month after taxes. The throttling seems to be different on there after the high speed ends. I've seen it drop to 1Mb/s, which isn't bad.

Or just add $10-40 worth of family data add-ons.

Just say no to Straight Talk - absolute crap customer service, completely incomprehensible. Lose phone numbers all the time and their default solution to all problems is to send you a new SIM card...which takes 3-5 days, while in the mean time your service goes inactive or your number is lost. Yes.. I've had to help many people with this lol..

edit: oh, if you choose one of the T-Mobile ones, make sure your phone is the TMo one so you'll get 3/"4G"
Straight talk doesn't seem too bad for the price. $45/month for pretty much unlimited everything. That sounds pretty decent to me. I think the best solution is to buy a few sims for different carriers and exchange them out if you have a issue with the service. All you'd need to do is port your current cell's number to google voice which should make life easier when you switch carriers.

Family Mobile drops to .9Mb/s after only 250MB of usage. How do I know this? They set me up on one of those plans when I asked them for the T-Mobile $30 one.
Yeah that's kinda lame. You can always bump it up from 250MB/mo:

1GB Speed Boost for $10/month
3GB Speed Boost for $20/month
8GB Speed Boost for $40/month
I think that's a tad too high and it almost makes some contract plans look good :eek:
 
Just say no to Straight Talk - absolute crap customer service, completely incomprehensible. Lose phone numbers all the time and their default solution to all problems is to send you a new SIM card...which takes 3-5 days, while in the mean time your service goes inactive or your number is lost. Yes.. I've had to help many people with this lol..

On this, I've had a bad experience with StraightTalk: I was ONE DAY late on refilling my account ($45 Unlimited), and they gave away my number! Really! So, after getting my new number, I bought a T-Mobile Monthly4G sim kit, threw it in my old TM506, ported the number over, and got my $45 back.

Never again, StraightTalk, never again...
 
I found this thread - and was super excited for a bit, (before I realized my Verizon CDMA phone is incompatible)

The idea is alluring - 30--60 dollars a month for a good chunk of minutes, unlimited text and a limited but defined allotment of data?

If I had a GSM phone I'd be tempted to try however when you start adding things to get even 1/2 of what I have now with Verizon (450min/unlimited text/10GB LTE data) it starts get get less and less attractive.

the 100 or 250MB of data per day? sorry, if I want to stream music, or if I have some files I need to email via tether - that's not going to fly.

Most days I might only use a few MB, but when I need it, i *NEED* it.

My bill with Verizon is 100 flat every month - sure it's 25 more per month than I was paying with my unlimited sprint plan, but (to me) it's worth that price hike to get 20MB+ down when I need it via LTE.

I did a bit of research, no exhaustive mind you. If there was a way I could get a Razr Maxx on Tmobile with unlimited voice/text and a smidgen of data I'd be happy.

I just started a verizon contract though 2 months ago -- I got a while to go till I can start to look elsewhere without taking a large hit financially. I'm overall happy (modded Galaxy Nexus) even after the radio and phone updates via XDA manually I still feel that the radios in this phone have an issue.
 
The standard $45 "unlimited" plan on AT&T's network.
Sounds like a pretty cool deal, I just can't get over the limit of 250MB/day limit. That's NOT unlimited by any stretch of the imagination. If I go on vacation or something I'm going to likely use more then that per day.

On this, I've had a bad experience with StraightTalk: I was ONE DAY late on refilling my account ($45 Unlimited), and they gave away my number! Really! So, after getting my new number, I bought a T-Mobile Monthly4G sim kit, threw it in my old TM506, ported the number over, and got my $45 back.

Never again, StraightTalk, never again...
That is kinda silly, but again, these are pre-paid plans and if you forget to pay a bill once you can run into these situations. Again, get your number ported to google voice and don't worry about this issue.

I found this thread - and was super excited for a bit, (before I realized my Verizon CDMA phone is incompatible)

The idea is alluring - 30--60 dollars a month for a good chunk of minutes, unlimited text and a limited but defined allotment of data?

If I had a GSM phone I'd be tempted to try however when you start adding things to get even 1/2 of what I have now with Verizon (450min/unlimited text/10GB LTE data) it starts get get less and less attractive.

the 100 or 250MB of data per day? sorry, if I want to stream music, or if I have some files I need to email via tether - that's not going to fly.

Most days I might only use a few MB, but when I need it, i *NEED* it.

My bill with Verizon is 100 flat every month - sure it's 25 more per month than I was paying with my unlimited sprint plan, but (to me) it's worth that price hike to get 20MB+ down when I need it via LTE.

I did a bit of research, no exhaustive mind you. If there was a way I could get a Razr Maxx on Tmobile with unlimited voice/text and a smidgen of data I'd be happy.

I just started a verizon contract though 2 months ago -- I got a while to go till I can start to look elsewhere without taking a large hit financially. I'm overall happy (modded Galaxy Nexus) even after the radio and phone updates via XDA manually I still feel that the radios in this phone have an issue.
Good points, but again I still pay $25/month for virgin mobile and get coverage anywhere sprint gets coverage. Roaming to non-sprint networks can get dicey, but I've never had that problem in maryland.

There are some good alternatives in this thread. Thanks for the help guys, The XDA thread was likely the most helpful :)
 
Family Mobile drops to .9Mb/s after only 250MB of usage. How do I know this? They set me up on one of those plans when I asked them for the T-Mobile $30 one.

You don't, I'm just sharing what results I've seen on several phones.

Some people aren't getting any throttling. It almost seems like the classic unlimited plan style throttling, where your data gets slower based on the load on the tower you're connected to.
 
Yeah that's kinda lame. You can always bump it up from 250MB/mo:

1GB Speed Boost for $10/month
3GB Speed Boost for $20/month
8GB Speed Boost for $40/month
I think that's a tad too high and it almost makes some contract plans look good :eek:
Idk, name me a plan that's $65 and gives you >3GB of data - or $85 and gives you >8GB

Though, that add-on is meant for a family account, since everyone shares the data add-on. I'd see how they throttle your data after 250MB though, because like I said above, I've seen zero throttling for some people, and ~.9Mb/s for others.

If you had, say, two users:
$45 + $35 + 8GB of data ($40) = $120 w/4GB each

Or three people:
$45 + $35 + $35 + 8GB of data ($40) = $155 or around $50 a person with >2GB each.


For me, though - I'd probably just do TMo's $30 5GB/text/100min for myself, then use Google Voice or Skype for extra minutes.

Shop around on this, though - I always like messing around with prepaid / no contract cheap-o plans. Like, if someone finds a stable app that lets you make & receive Google Voice calls using your data (not wifi), I'd totally try that out.
 
You don't, I'm just sharing what results I've seen on several phones.

Some people aren't getting any throttling. It almost seems like the classic unlimited plan style throttling, where your data gets slower based on the load on the tower you're connected to.

Speed tests were hitting exactly 900Kb/s every single time for a week. I called and they confirmed that's the cap after a mere 250MB at "4g" speeds (HSPA+). This is the Family Mobile plan I'm talking about mind you.
 
Speed tests were hitting exactly 900Kb/s every single time for a week. I called and they confirmed that's the cap after a mere 250MB at "4g" speeds (HSPA+). This is the Family Mobile plan I'm talking about mind you.
I got you. I thought you were asking how would someone know what their speed would be.

To clarify: were you getting that after 250MB or the whole time? From my experience, I got 10-15Mbps on a Galaxy S II. A friend has the Exhibit II and past the 250MB she gets .9, which isn't bad.
 
That is kinda silly, but again, these are pre-paid plans and if you forget to pay a bill once you can run into these situations. Again, get your number ported to google voice and don't worry about this issue.

I understand that it is pre-paid, but even T-Mobile gives you 30 days to re-fill a Monthly4G account before they switch you to Pay-As-You-Go. Also, I couldn't port the number to GV, because StraightTalk removed the number from my account, and gave it to someone that activated that same day.
 
Anyone with the T-Mobile 4g plans..How is it? Do you get good coverage/speed?
 
Anyone with the T-Mobile 4g plans..How is it? Do you get good coverage/speed?

It is mostly dependent on the state of T-Mobile's network in your area. Here in Mobile, AL, I get excellent coverage for about 75 miles, data speeds are ok, not LTE fast; on my Exhibit II, I get around 2-3Mbps down (if I tether my iPad to it, I can get up to 5Mbps). HSPA+ covers the entire city of Mobile, and 3 cities 10 miles east.
 
It is mostly dependent on the state of T-Mobile's network in your area. Here in Mobile, AL, I get excellent coverage for about 75 miles, data speeds are ok, not LTE fast; on my Exhibit II, I get around 2-3Mbps down (if I tether my iPad to it, I can get up to 5Mbps). HSPA+ covers the entire city of Mobile, and 3 cities 10 miles east.

Well right now I am getting maximum of 1Mbps with my Droid 2(only 3g but 4g wouldn't be worth it anymore with verizon's shitty prices). So that sounds pretty good, seems my area is covered very well, at least from their maps. Yeah looks like my house is right in the "Very Good" section of 4g and so is my school, sweet.
 
If you do decide to go with T-Mobile Prepaid, make sure you don't go over your data cap (5GB for the $30/$70 plans, 200MB for $50 and 2GB for $60), even though EDGE isn't so bad (out of the 6 places I travel to for work only one is in a 3G/HSPA area, the others are EDGE), I have no problems accessing my work website and email, but streaming video may be out.
 
If you do decide to go with T-Mobile Prepaid, make sure you don't go over your data cap (5GB for the $30/$70 plans, 200MB for $50 and 2GB for $60), even though EDGE isn't so bad (out of the 6 places I travel to for work only one is in a 3G/HSPA area, the others are EDGE), I have no problems accessing my work website and email, but streaming video may be out.

I think the max I ever used in one month was ~2.5gb if even, but I like the option to go higher, and since I rarely use my phone to actually call someone, that $30 plan is really appealing to me. BTW, do you know how much each minute costs if you go over the amount you get? This might be important for my brother who uses more minutes.
 
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