Best prepaid carriers for Nexus 4

[tabletnovice]

People here LOVE to support Verizon and nothing else.

Not me!

I regret the day I signed up with Verizon, nothing but problems too numerous to mention. But the main one is that I can hardly ever use my phone inside a home. The connection, if I can get one, is so poor. Never had such problems when I was with ATT and had a reliable Nokia phone!

I spoke with a very tech savvy fellow a few weeks ago when I was waiting to have my car serviced. He recommend Straight Talk, which he uses. I'm going to give it a try as soon as it's feasible to get three family members off Verizon without paying huge penalties.

 

[HAAS599]

I'm giving SimpleMobile a try for the first month with my Nexus 4.

 

[evperry]

Personally I think TMobile and the MVNO model is gonna be the future. America is just slow to the gate on this one.

Once people realize how much cheaper it is to go prepaid its gonna dominate. It's literally the free market at work.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[roblox84]

Personally I think TMobile and the MVNO model is gonna be the future. America is just slow to the gate on this one.

Once people realize how much cheaper it is to go prepaid its gonna dominate. It's literally the free market at work.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

Cheaper yes, but even better is that you don't have to sign a contract for two freakin' years. More people will also come once they find out there are carriers out there that don't require any contract.

The last time I signed a cellphone contract was when I was barely out of high school and the carriers still had one year contracts instead of two years.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[evperry]

That's what I would typically think but everyone I talk to about prepaid doesn't seem bothered about signing a contract.

It's bizarre. The younger generation will get it, then older generation might be to accustomed to contracts.

Anyway I agree with you, no contract and cheaper is the way.

Cheaper yes, but even better is that you don't have to sign a contract for two freakin' years. More people will also come once they find out there are carriers out there that don't require any contract.

The last time I signed a cellphone contract was when I was barely out of high school and the carriers still had one year contracts instead of two years.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[DirkBelig]

Ordered my Straight Talk AT&T SIM today - don't forget to use the code "SIMSAVE" to save the cost of the SIM itself - and am wondering if it will get delivered before the darn phone. Hopefully it will arrive on Monday with the phone.

 

[nickacs]

I also use Solavei.

I went from Sprint to Verizon to Tmobile Prepaid to AT&T to Straighttalk to Solavei.....I've seen them all folks.

Solavei works perfectly and your speed only drops slightly from tmobile pre paid speeds. The benefit of Solavei vs Tmboile Prepaid is...DRUM ROLL please. The roaming (prepaid tmobile doesn't do it) and the conditional call forwarding for those of us who know that Google Voice is awesome.

Its not a pyramid, scam or anything of the sort. I haven't signed up one person and no one calls or annoys me at all...It works and its a good deal PERIOD. If you sign up 3 people then you get some money I think.

AT&T works VERY well in certain area but is awful in NYC and I mean awful.

Anyway you hae plenty of choices but keep in mind that most will involce AT&T and Tmobile as backbone.

So does Solavei use both AT&T and TMobile networks, or like ST, you have to pick one carrier as the back bone? Thanks..

 

[ccleanerfan]

I'm going to use simplemobile on my nexus 4 for a month or two. Then decide if I wanna stay or go to straight talk

 

[rjj1976]

Well the Nexus neither, I'll stick with Solavei for now. Let's hope it pays out in the end, I pay 80 dollars for local carrier "Claro" and the reception and signal are abysmal.

Edit: Solavei doesn't offer micro sims right?

Yes they do have micro sims, I received mine today.

 

[Andrew Martonik]

if you go over, you have to buy minutes somehwere and enter the code or something?

You have to keep a positive balance on the account. So if you keep $10 available on your account, that means you can use another 100 minutes after your initial 100 is gone. If you don't have money in the account, your phone won't make any calls except to 911. They'll never charge an overage and/or send you a bill.

 

[rjj1976]

So does Solavei use both AT&T and TMobile networks, or like ST, you have to pick one carrier as the back bone? Thanks..

Solavei will roam on AT&T unlike the $30 Tmobile plan that has no roaming.

This is a good article on Solavei,
A closer look at Solavei, aka the pre-paid wireless service that pays you to refer your friends | Android and Me

If you decide to signup I would appreciate you using me as your referral. http://www.solavei.com/SignUp?un=bobnoway&from=Invite

 

[hughfitzgerald]

Solavei will roam on AT&T unlike the $30 Tmobile plan that has no roaming.

Are you referring to data roaming? Because T-Mobile's prepaid plan does allow voice roaming: Support: Roaming: No Annual Contract

 

[rjj1976]

Yes I was, the T-Mobile $30 plan has no data roaming.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[hectorbribiesca]

Join Solavei, it uses T-mobile's network but foe only 49.00 a month no contract... this is how you get your micro sim card ordered and your nexus 4 set up

1. To begin signup of your Nexus 4 use this link.
www.solavei.com
2. Enter your zip to confirm coverage
3. [Important] Use the following IMEI # to get past the first step: 353022055115650 . This IMEI ensures you get the micro-sim card instead of a full-size sim.
4. Solavei asks if you want to port a phone # or have them choose a phone # for you.
5. Solavei asks for the usual personal information
6. Solavei mentions that it will be shipping you a "sim" but does not go into detail whether it is a micro-sim or not. Don't worry. The IMEI # you used earlier ensures it is a micro-sim.
7. Finish the process and a micro-sim card will be shipped out to you within 2 business days #Googlenexus #Lgnexus4 #solavei

Hope that helps.

 

[stockandroidguy]

$30 T-Mobile 100 min unlimited data (up to 5gb high speed) and unlimited text is for me the best deal ever.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

 

[anon(94115)]

The thing that needs to happen for prepaid to really take off is cheaper phones. The crippled N4 is a good start, but they need to come down even further. Too many people only look at the 699 full retail price and do not realize that they are spending more on the subsidized phone with a contract.

Sent from my X-Band Modem... TY Genesis

 

[evperry]

T-Mobile for the most part. It is suppose to roam on any network that has a roaming agreement with T-Mobile. So if at&t and T-Mobile have an agreement somewhere you are good to go.

So does Solavei use both AT&T and TMobile networks, or like ST, you have to pick one carrier as the back bone? Thanks..

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[gomab357]

I personally use Wal-Mart's Family Mobile plan (4 phones). Our bill is $140 including tax...unlimited everything. Note that it is a grandfathered plan. The new plans are a tad bit more.

 

[LNWJ]

I posted this in another thread, but in case you hadn't seen it:

Switched from Sprint to ST (AT&T). So far the wife and I are thrilled with the service. Call quality is better than it was on Sprint. Data speeds are actually better. On Sprint we would only get between 50k-120k on average down/up speeds. Straight talk is either blazing (IMHO) or on-par/better than Sprint. You will see wild fluctuations in speed but so far the lowest download speed was 250-300k down/up, while moments later it will be 5100k/1000-2000 down/up. So keep this in mind.

I spend 85% of the day on WiFi (Work/Home) so it doesn't bother me. Signal strength is much higher than it was on Sprint. Tested GPS the other day heading to work and the GPS lock on the N4 was instant compared to my NS, once the route had loaded it had a lock in 3-4 seconds (Keep in mind we live in a rural area). Porting our numbers from Sprint to ST took minutes on the web. It was about 45 minutes for me, mostly because I had never done it before and was told not to reboot the phone while the port was in progress. After 45 minutes I was kinda impatient and rebooted. Once I did the port was done. So when it came time to activate my wife's it took only about 15 minutes (With reboot).

Now the negatives:
ST customer service sucks. They are very friendly, just expect to be on hold for 20+ minutes just to get to talk to a human. I was kinda stupid and pin locked my SIM but did it the incorrect way and got my SIM PUK locked. Called ST... was on hold for 15 minutes then the system dropped me out. Called back. Hold for 20 minutes, lady told me I needed to call the BYOP number (Which was not listed on the FAQ for PUK locked error). During the transfer got hung up on, called back and another 20 minute wait. But once I spoke to this lady the problem was fixed immediately. So keep these in mind. There is no store to walk into if you are frustrated with phone hold times.

Very happy, would recommend ST if they have coverage in your area and you can live with slight lower speeds. To me the speed is blazing compared to our old Sprint service.

I'm sorry for the book of a post, but I hope this information helps someone.

 

[tabletnovice]

I use Verizon and have LTE coverage in the entire city, well at least parts I visit I have great coverage but the bill sucks even with the 15% discount I get from work. I'm a happy customer, but I just feel ill whenever I get the email with the bill amount I paid.

From everything I've read (including Consumer Reports) Verizon has the best coverage in all cities. But, as you said, they are very expensive. Do any of the other prepaid services, such as Straight Talk, use Verizon? (Hope I'm framing this question correctly). Thank you!