Questions about $30 plan.

[Voltan89]

These probably sound like noob questions, but I can't find some answers after looking through some posts so here it goes:
- Does anyone have experience using the $30 plan ( 5gb data, unlimited text, 100 minutes) or T-mobile prepaid in general in San Antonio, specifically the southeast area by 37 & 410? Looking at the coverage map for prepaid in my area it says I should be good, but I don't live in a heavily populated neighborhood, and I can't seem to find where any towers are at.
-How hard is the process of switching to this plan? I've read many horror stories from here on how you must buy a phone from Wal-Mart and activate everything there. It took awhile to even find the plan on the T-mobile website, but I chatted with a CSR who told me all I had to do was order the sim, once it arrives activate it, call into customer service to port my number, and voila, should be good to go.
-I currently have a Galaxy Nexus which uses the full size sim, but I was planning on ordering the micro-sim because when I eventually get a new phone it will most likely use that. Am I wrong in assuming I can try and match up the micro-sim in my nexus and it should work. Would rather not order something to try and make it fit into the slot.
-If I find that the service sucks, is it as easy as letting my account credit run out, and throwing another sim in there form another prepaid carrier? I could theoretically even switch to the new $50 plan that they just introduced that they offer for postpaid customers as well, correct?
-Finally, data speed and minutes. What kind of speeds can I expect from prepaid? I've always been a postpaid customer, but the savings are hard to ignore here. I don't usually use 100 minutes a month, but in the case that I approach the limit, could I just use my Google voice #, and that uses data?

Again, sorry for the noob questions, not too well informed of these things. Thanks!

 

[JamesTBurns]

These probably sound like noob questions, but I can't find some answers after looking through some posts so here it goes:
- Does anyone have experience using the $30 plan ( 5gb data, unlimited text, 100 minutes) or T-mobile prepaid in general in San Antonio, specifically the southeast area by 37 & 410? Looking at the coverage map for prepaid in my area it says I should be good, but I don't live in a heavily populated neighborhood, and I can't seem to find where any towers are at.
-How hard is the process of switching to this plan? I've read many horror stories from here on how you must buy a phone from Wal-Mart and activate everything there. It took awhile to even find the plan on the T-mobile website, but I chatted with a CSR who told me all I had to do was order the sim, once it arrives activate it, call into customer service to port my number, and voila, should be good to go.
-I currently have a Galaxy Nexus which uses the full size sim, but I was planning on ordering the micro-sim because when I eventually get a new phone it will most likely use that. Am I wrong in assuming I can try and match up the micro-sim in my nexus and it should work. Would rather not order something to try and make it fit into the slot.
-If I find that the service sucks, is it as easy as letting my account credit run out, and throwing another sim in there form another prepaid carrier? I could theoretically even switch to the new $50 plan that they just introduced that they offer for postpaid customers as well, correct?
-Finally, data speed and minutes. What kind of speeds can I expect from prepaid? I've always been a postpaid customer, but the savings are hard to ignore here. I don't usually use 100 minutes a month, but in the case that I approach the limit, could I just use my Google voice #, and that uses data?

Again, sorry for the noob questions, not too well informed of these things. Thanks!

I just switched to the $70 plan and it has been so worth it. As far as post-paid/pre-paid, I guess now there is only pre paid. Last month a TMO rep tried to tell me that contract customers got better service, and then they kill all contracts a few weeks later. If you have a high end phone I recommend the $70 plan. I've used about 2.2 GB in 3 days so far. I live in the California desert and get between 1-6 mbps down pretty consistently where I live (the middle of nowhere) and between 12-20 mbps down when I go to the city (San Diego or Los Angeles) on a Nexus 4.

 

[patruns]

What $30 plan are you referring to? I do not see one anymore on T-Mobile's site and the Walmart site clearly states it only is for phones purchased from them. As to the SIM card size, just get a standard SIM for your Galaxy Nexus. If you later get a new phone just go to a local T-Mobile store and they should replace the old SIM for free.

 

[EnigmaticPsychotic]

I recently switched to the plan after 7 years of AT&T. It works great for me in Memphis. I have a Nexus 4 and bought the micro sim online, shipping was free, ported my number online with no problems.

So far after completing my first month I'm pretty happy. The lack of minutes may bother some, but I'm not. The speeds are faster than AT&T's HSPA+. As I said I'm pretty happy with the service, but there are a couple minor issues to consider.

You WILL be throttled after 5GB so be mindful of that.

The porting process can take up to 24 hours so you may not have full access initially (mine took around 6 hours before I could make calls & text, but data was available immediately).

Finally if you are currently on contract and want to keep your number porting it WILL CANCEL YOUR CONTRACT and can expose you to an early termination fee. Happened to me but luckily it wasn't much since mine was nearly up.

All said I'm very happy with the service. Still trying to adapt to having to watch my usage to avoid being throttled. Coming down to 2g is sobering when you get used to having 5-6MB speeds.

 

[Voltan89]

I just switched to the $70 plan and it has been so worth it. As far as post-paid/pre-paid, I guess now there is only pre paid. Last month a TMO rep tried to tell me that contract customers got better service, and then they kill all contracts a few weeks later. If you have a high end phone I recommend the $70 plan. I've used about 2.2 GB in 3 days so far. I live in the California desert and get between 1-6 mbps down pretty consistently where I live (the middle of nowhere) and between 12-20 mbps down when I go to the city (San Diego or Los Angeles) on a Nexus 4.

I think the new plans you are referring to are still postpaid, theres just no contracts as far as I understand it. Also, I've been trying to cut down my data usage, I'm almost always in a wifi area, so right now I got it down to about .5 gig. Those speeds are better than I'm getting right now with ATT anyway.

What $30 plan are you referring to? I do not see one anymore on T-Mobile's site and the Walmart site clearly states it only is for phones purchased from them. As to the SIM card size, just get a standard SIM for your Galaxy Nexus. If you later get a new phone just go to a local T-Mobile store and they should replace the old SIM for free.

The plan is on the website, like I said it's just really hard to find.

I recently switched to the plan after 7 years of AT&T. It works great for me in Memphis. I have a Nexus 4 and bought the micro sim online, shipping was free, ported my number online with no problems.

So far after completing my first month I'm pretty happy. The lack of minutes may bother some, but I'm not. The speeds are faster than AT&T's HSPA+. As I said I'm pretty happy with the service, but there are a couple minor issues to consider.

You WILL be throttled after 5GB so be mindful of that.

The porting process can take up to 24 hours so you may not have full access initially (mine took around 6 hours before I could make calls & text, but data was available immediately).

Finally if you are currently on contract and want to keep your number porting it WILL CANCEL YOUR CONTRACT and can expose you to an early termination fee. Happened to me but luckily it wasn't much since mine was nearly up.

All said I'm very happy with the service. Still trying to adapt to having to watch my usage to avoid being throttled. Coming down to 2g is sobering when you get used to having 5-6MB speeds.

I don't use that much data, try and stay on wifi so I'm not worried at all about getting throttled, it's just there other plans with more minutes give you a paltry sum of data where I know I'll go over. I still have several months left on my contract, so my ETF is around $155 right now. My thinking was even with the ETF, I'd be saving so much money with the new plan that I'd break even before the year is even out.

Anways...thanks for the responses!

 

[runtmms]

I don't use that much data, try and stay on wifi so I'm not worried at all about getting throttled, it's just there other plans with more minutes give you a paltry sum of data where I know I'll go over.

This is why I went with Solavei. I thought it was the best balance of data and minutes on the T-Mobile network. $49 for unlimited talk/text/data unthrottled for 4GB. They also have a referral program which can effectively lower this rate.


Sent from my Nexus 4 on Solavei

 

[Voltan89]

This is why I went with Solavei. I thought it was the best balance of data and minutes on the T-Mobile network. $49 for unlimited talk/text/data unthrottled for 4GB. They also have a referral program which can effectively lower this rate.


Sent from my Nexus 4 on Solavei

But my thinking here if for $1 more I can just be on T-mobile postpaid, have that service and coverage area. 1/2 gb is ok with me.

 

[runtmms]

But my thinking here if for $1 more I can just be on T-mobile postpaid, have that service and coverage area. 1/2 gb is ok with me.

That's why there are a lot of different choices. I couldn't justify paying even $1 more for a fraction of the data on the same network.

Competition is a good thing.

Sent from my Nexus 4 on Solavei

 

[npark2012]

These probably sound like noob questions, but I can't find some answers after looking through some posts so here it goes:
- Does anyone have experience using the $30 plan ( 5gb data, unlimited text, 100 minutes) or T-mobile prepaid in general in San Antonio, specifically the southeast area by 37 & 410? Looking at the coverage map for prepaid in my area it says I should be good, but I don't live in a heavily populated neighborhood, and I can't seem to find where any towers are at.
-How hard is the process of switching to this plan? I've read many horror stories from here on how you must buy a phone from Wal-Mart and activate everything there. It took awhile to even find the plan on the T-mobile website, but I chatted with a CSR who told me all I had to do was order the sim, once it arrives activate it, call into customer service to port my number, and voila, should be good to go.
-I currently have a Galaxy Nexus which uses the full size sim, but I was planning on ordering the micro-sim because when I eventually get a new phone it will most likely use that. Am I wrong in assuming I can try and match up the micro-sim in my nexus and it should work. Would rather not order something to try and make it fit into the slot.
-If I find that the service sucks, is it as easy as letting my account credit run out, and throwing another sim in there form another prepaid carrier? I could theoretically even switch to the new $50 plan that they just introduced that they offer for postpaid customers as well, correct?
-Finally, data speed and minutes. What kind of speeds can I expect from prepaid? I've always been a postpaid customer, but the savings are hard to ignore here. I don't usually use 100 minutes a month, but in the case that I approach the limit, could I just use my Google voice #, and that uses data?

Again, sorry for the noob questions, not too well informed of these things. Thanks!

No such thing as a stupid question, at least to a certain extent...

- I don't live there so I can't help you on this one.
-You can buy the TMO sim kit and activate it online. But what I did was go to walgreens buy one of those boxes with the phone in it as well as the sim car for tmo, took the sim out and activated online, I did this because I didn't want to wait for shipping. And you can't buy at the tmo store because they will try to activate it there and they can't have the plan you are looking for.
- That sim won't fit with the nexus, but I believe there are tools out there that can trim it to fit the next phone that uses the smaller sim.
-Yes just don't use your account and eventually they will cancel it. And you can very easily switch to a different plan.
-No your google voice number does NOT use data, it uses your MINUTES. If you want to use your data get an app like Groove IP. And as for speed, it's fast enough, given that you're in a good area. For me I get about 7-13Mbps down. And if you run out of minutes just load your account with money, it will be 10 cents per minute. so $10 should give you an extra 100 minutes.

Hope that helped.