Q: Tmobile Monthly 4G $30 and Groove IP

[donec]

Got a microsim activation kit from the following

Sim Card Activation Kit For Prepaid Phone or Unlocked iPhone | T-Mobil

The activation instructions provide a website, hard to screw up. Card was 99 cents with free shipping, they even gave me a $3.34 credit towards first month.

I'm thrilled with the package, I get good service, loving my Nexus 4 (first smartphone, glad I waited)

Did you have a plan with T-mobile before getting the micro sim activation kit? If not did you get a number form T-mobile or port one over to T-mobile?

 

[Irishgator]

Thanks for the follow up. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling. Will see if it works better... I hope so. I love the theory....not much luck with the actual implementation...yet.

 

[6tr6tr]

I will be cutting the Verizon cord come Dec 3rd, and porting my long beloved number to Google Voice; I've been using Groove IP & Google Voice for the past week with my Nexus 4 and before that on the GNex. Calls from Groove are spotty, download speeds are always faster than upload, so you will always hear callers better than they can hear you. Calls on HSPA will work ok to poor on most places; I do find myself shouting and repeating a lot, so for those instances, using the 100 minutes will come in handy

I do get decent WiFi at home and work; home works better with calls; in & out; but for some reason I only ping less than 1megs up at work, so calls are ok, but really poor for the most part. So, I bought in-hear microphone & earphones and am taking & making calls on gmail. When I get into work, I exit my Groove App, and calls into my Google Voice gets forwarded to Gmail... pretty sweet...

any updates on how this has been? how's the quality of the calls for you or the people you call? what's the T-Mobile connection been like?

 

[6tr6tr]

My main thing is that I want to get the unlimited data plan and use VOIP for phone calls. I will try it for a month I guess. If it works on most of the roads I use in town it wil cover 95% of my usage needs.

have you been using VoIP on the T-Mobile plan? how has it been?

 

[Tacoman667]

have you been using VoIP on the T-Mobile plan? how has it been?

I haven't activated the sim card yet. Been crazy busy with the holidays coming up. I need to do it already and start playing with it. I was under the impression that plan was unlimited but they actually throttle it after 5Gb usage right?

 

[greydarrah]

Ive been using GrooveIP for a couple of days and I find it more than adequate. I was on a 20 minute call (via GrooveIP) with Verizon last night, cancelling all my lines/plans and it worked like a charm. It's not quite as good as a solid cell connection, but probably as good as when your floating between 1 and 2 bars...sometimes a small amount of static or a slight lag in voice transmission, but overall, very good. I've only used it while on wifi and have read that it can be more finicky over your phones data connection. It seems to be all about your ping rate, with under 200 being needed, and under 100 being preferred. You need to play with the settings (speaker, mic and echo) while talking to someone to get it tuned in. The first time I used it with all the default settings, it sounded like an old fashioned long distance call (pretty bad). The truth is, in my humble opinion, cell phone conversations are mostly sub par at best. I've always noticed a slight lag in conversations, so this is really no different. Bottom line for me is that it works and it's a great way to put a serious dent in your cell phone bill.

 

[6tr6tr]

I haven't activated the sim card yet. Been crazy busy with the holidays coming up. I need to do it already and start playing with it. I was under the impression that plan was unlimited but they actually throttle it after 5Gb usage right?

Yes. It's not a cap of 5GB, but after 5GB, it's 2g speeds. Shouldn't be an issue as 2000 minutes of talking (on data only, not wifi) would be about 2.3GB with GrooveIP. That leaves you about 2.7GB of data for everything else. And if even just 20% of your talking is over wifi, you'd have about 3.2GB left for everything else.

 

[6tr6tr]

It seems to be all about your ping rate, with under 200 being needed, and under 100 being preferred.

That could be a problem. In the tests I've seen online, people found the HSPA+ radio in the Nexus 4 took on average over 1000ms to ping in Speedtest. They theorized it was due to the radio being shut down and needing to start up, so maybe it's only at the beginning and then is fine, but it could be an issue. If you have the $30 plan, could you test some calls with that?

 

[greydarrah]

That could be a problem. In the tests I've seen online, people found the HSPA+ radio in the Nexus 4 took on average over 1000ms to ping in Speedtest. They theorized it was due to the radio being shut down and needing to start up, so maybe it's only at the beginning and then is fine, but it could be an issue. If you have the $30 plan, could you test some calls with that?

The ping rates you're seeing seem way off. I tested it today and found it to work great. My ping rates (using sppedtest.net) in repeated testing testing over the past two days run around 100 (usually ranging from 80 something to 110). That's with a 3 to 4 bar HASP+ connection, which I have just about everywhere I am. My data speeds are around 10 to 14 mgb down and 1 to 3 mgb up, and I'm on the T Mobile $30 prepaid plan. As a side note, my wife's N4 is hooked up to Straight Talk AT&T, and her speedtest numbers are not nearly that good. GrooveIP worked great over the network on all calls. Personally, I've found that sometimes I get feedback on a call and if I adjust the mic + or - a value of 2 or 3, while on the call, it goes away. I don't have to do that on every call, just sometimes. I'm no expert here, but I would guess that it has to do with your data connection, the tower you happen to connected to, the tower you might switch to in the middle of a call, or if you you're on wifi, whether or not your kid might have started streaming videos while your on a call. That's not to imply that I'm constantly making adjustments during a call, as most go as smooth as a regular call. It's just nice to know that you can tweak it if you need to.

 

[sambao21]

I've been using groove ip for the past week, and while it works great over wifi, the same can not be said over tmobile (lots of cutting out), even though I get great coverage and speeds. I really wanted this to work because my wife does talk on her phone. I can live with the $30 tmobile plan and 100 minutes, but I'm going to be getting her the straight talk unlimited everything for $45.

I even tried sipdroid as that has more codecs to choose from, but it still wasn't good enough over the cell network.

 

[AlternetConcept]

I've been using groove ip for the past week, and while it works great over wifi, the same can not be said over tmobile (lots of cutting out), even though I get great coverage and speeds. I really wanted this to work because my wife does talk on her phone. I can live with the $30 tmobile plan and 100 minutes, but I'm going to be getting her the straight talk unlimited everything for $45.

I even tried sipdroid as that has more codecs to choose from, but it still wasn't good enough over the cell network.

I too am going to straight talk due to the lack of minutes. I bought groove IP when it went on sale but I hate having to keep it on all the time and I didn't want to merge my number with my Google number. Having unlimited everything for an extra $15 is much better than being on any sprint plan.

 

[donec]

I've seen talk of testing your line to see how good your call is. You can use the free number 1 909 390-0003. Most of the time the line will ring but sometimes it will not ring and no one will answer but when you talk you will hear yourself. I don't think it is really a true test of the quality but you can use it when making adjustments and try to get where it sounds good then try a call to another line with a person to fine tune the settings.

I have found that for my WiFi calls I get better quality using Talkatone than Groove IP so far.

 

[acegolfer]

I used that number a lot to test the call quality under various settings.

I gave up on GrooveIP and talktatone as the quality is not satisfactory. I settled for a somewhat complicated VOIP solution but still free. Surprisingly, the call quality on 3g is better than Tmo GSM. Nowadays, I only use the Tmo minutes to compare the call quality.

Here's the guide. [GUIDE] Free VOIP calls w/ iLBC codec (better than G729?) - xda-developers

 

[rupam95]

So to use Groove IP, do you need to unlock the bootloader? Also, is there a step-by-step guide on how to use Groove IP to make free phone calls?

I am going to try out the $30 monthly 4g plan for a month and see how many minutes i would use in one month.

 

[skidmark]

So to use Groove IP, do you need to unlock the bootloader? Also, is there a step-by-step guide on how to use Groove IP to make free phone calls?

I am going to try out the $30 monthly 4g plan for a month and see how many minutes i would use in one month.

You do not need to root to use grooveip. Just install the app and you are good to go.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[lar2599]

I also have the T-Mobile $30. 100 minute unlimited data plan. I use Google Voice with Groove IP. My experience with calls has been very positive. The only hiccup is when switching from home wireless to the data Groove Ip takes a couple minutes to log back in to Google Voice. I make it a practice now to check after I leave home to make certain its logged in. I use a MyTouch 4g and a Motorola Xoom with the same setup.

Also use two other things that help...MagicJack...its not hype, been using it for a few years...best deal out there. Also new service called Freedom Pop that gives you a WI-FI hotspot with 500 MB free and 2G for $10. Works great.

 

[erjennin]

Has anyone tried this combination? Groove IP will let you send and receive calls through the data provider be it wifi or cellular. At $30 a month, I would never need to burn any of those 100 minutes provided in the plan.

I think I might try it out when my N4 arrives tomorrow though. $30/mo for an unlimited data plan is pretty sick!

I tried this for a few days and I blew through the 100 minutes quickly... so I was forced to use GrooveIP for all my remaining calls. The end result is that it didn't work very well. I live in a very well covered T-Mobile area and nearly every caller complained of the call quality. I was forced to eventually change to the $60 UNL Min, UNL Text, 2GB of High Speed data plan on T-Mobile. Coming from Verizon LTE, I don't want to deal with AT&T's slower speeds and I don't like how many people have been complaining of random throttling by StraightTalk.

 

[skidmark]

I tried this for a few days and I blew through the 100 minutes quickly... so I was forced to use GrooveIP for all my remaining calls. The end result is that it didn't work very well. I live in a very well covered T-Mobile area and nearly every caller complained of the call quality. I was forced to eventually change to the $60 UNL Min, UNL Text, 2GB of High Speed data plan on T-Mobile. Coming from Verizon LTE, I don't want to deal with AT&T's slower speeds and I don't like how many people have been complaining of random throttling by StraightTalk.

I would checkout Solavei they have $49 unlimited plan using t-mobile towers.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[skyrockett]

i gave up on GrooveIP! I thought it would be a great option... but it isn't.

 

[erjennin]

I would checkout Solavei they have $49 unlimited plan using t-mobile towers.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Does Solavei offer data/voice roaming? Are the speeds throttled or is the service de-prioritized since it's not T-Mobile's direct plan? My previous experience with Straight Talk wasn't great, so I'm skeptical about Solavei.