Author Topic: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide  (Read 509799 times)

Tennis Maniac

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #450 on: February 18, 2013, 07:23:53 PM »
I ported my number from AT&T 4 months ago and used these steps:
1) call and ask them to unlock phone (iPhone 4s under contract, 11 months left); no problem
2) initiate and complete number porting to google voice; no problems
3) AT&T then charged me the ETF for terminating my service under contract; I was charged the correct amount based on their formula $325 - ($10 x number of months into contact)

This seems to be a different order than IP Daily suggested.  If you can get them to unlock your phone before canceling service or paying the ETF I think you are better off.

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #451 on: February 18, 2013, 08:07:56 PM »
This seems to be a different order than IP Daily suggested.  If you can get them to unlock your phone before canceling service or paying the ETF I think you are better off.

Agreed. My major point with the order of things was mostly to remind folks not to cancel service through their old provider if they want to keep their number and make sure the phone was unlocked before migration to ensure the greatest level of continued success using the device in the future.

KulshanGirl

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #452 on: February 18, 2013, 09:16:24 PM »
We tried to unlock it before we terminated, we were denied as it was still under contract.  Round and round we go!  :)  Well, the latest update on my phone is that I did a system update on it (iPhone 4s) to 6.1.1 and the WIFI no longer works.  At all.  After a bit of googling, it turns out I'm not the only one experiencing this, to various degrees.  Quite a number of 4s phones and iPad 3s are affected.  I called apple and I'm sending them the phone to either fix or replace. (they were super nice).  So, I'm using el cheapo GoPhone and my iPod touch for the time being.  I have Facetime on there, which works well with other Mac users. The touch is still on some oooold system 4.something.something and it works like a champ, except I can't get Netflix on there. 

I will probably port the number of the GoPhone over to Airvoice.  (Now I know!) It's kind of a cool number, very easy to remember and fun to say.  However, it somehow has the prefix for a neighboring po-dunky farm town instead of my town.  Same county, and not a typical cell number, it's a land line prefix.  I'm a little worried about telemarketers.  Have you heard of that, cell companies using land-line prefixes?  I show up in caller ID as "Name of po-dunk neighbor town," according to my mom.  LOL. But it does seem to be a relatively clean number as far as getting unwanted calls for the previous person. Should I use it or let AirVoice give me a new one? 

In other news, I have learned how to get the sim card drawer open.     

ChicagoGirl

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #453 on: February 28, 2013, 01:10:58 PM »
Airvoice no longer ports phone numbers from the Chicagoland area.  I unlocked my Samsung phone which is off contract thru AT & T, purchased my SIM cards from Airvoice and when it came time to port my phone number Airvoice informed me of this porting issue, but offered me a new phone number (which is not possible due my phone number being tied to my business).  Any suggestions?

It's important that I keep my phone number. Is my only choice to saving money to port my number to Google Voice and forward calls to new number Airvoice would give me? I use mostly voice, some texting, very limited data needed. Has anyone had any problems or issues with calls being forwarded this way thru Google Voice? I have read thru a lot of I.P. Daley's information and concerns about GV (thank you I.P. for your time and effort put into the info on this forum!) I guess I am just wondering if anyone out there has done this and it's working well for them. 

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #454 on: February 28, 2013, 01:25:06 PM »
Airvoice no longer ports phone numbers from the Chicagoland area.  I unlocked my Samsung phone which is off contract thru AT & T, purchased my SIM cards from Airvoice and when it came time to port my phone number Airvoice informed me of this porting issue, but offered me a new phone number (which is not possible due my phone number being tied to my business).  Any suggestions?

That's a curious development. You can try the GV option, but as I've said before, sometimes the service is twitchy. For example, someone just tried calling me on my GV account a few minutes ago and it never rang on my end and went straight to voicemail.

If you were specifically looking at the $10/month package from Airvoice and if T-Mobile GSM coverage will work for your area (it should), try contacting Platinumtel and find out if your number can be ported to them. Per minute charges are a penny higher on their Real PayGo service, but data charges are 23¢ lower per MB. You shouldn't have any trouble using them if your phone's carrier unlocked, either. Data speeds might be slower than you're used to, though.

My greatest concern is that Airvoice can't port your number... if Airvoice can't, I'm a bit worried that others might not either, including Google and Platinumtel. Just for curiosity sake, who's your current provider?

mm31

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #455 on: February 28, 2013, 01:54:07 PM »
I've decided to go with Ting for cell provider. I've also decided to go for a smart phone this time. My requirements are simple: the phone has to be global, which means it has to have both gsm and cdma and it has to run Android. also asked Ting if there was any restriction on the kind of phones I could bring in, and they said that it has to be a Sprint phone with a clean ESN. I don't really understand why that is, I'm pretty new at this stuff.

I looked around and found that there are only 2 Sprint phones that satisfy my requirements: Motorola Photon 4g and HTC Evo Design 4g. I've ordered both from ebay. I'm also a computer nerd and intend to boot-unlock and root both phones so I can play with the latest and greatest with Android.

I initially just ordered the Photon 4g, but I've heard that there is no way to unlock it if it's running Android 2.3.5. If that's the case, I'll return it. The Evo Design should be much easier to unlock from what I've read.


ChicagoGirl

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #456 on: February 28, 2013, 02:03:19 PM »
Airvoice no longer ports phone numbers from the Chicagoland area.  I unlocked my Samsung phone which is off contract thru AT & T, purchased my SIM cards from Airvoice and when it came time to port my phone number Airvoice informed me of this porting issue, but offered me a new phone number (which is not possible due my phone number being tied to my business).  Any suggestions?

That's a curious development. You can try the GV option, but as I've said before, sometimes the service is twitchy. For example, someone just tried calling me on my GV account a few minutes ago and it never rang on my end and went straight to voicemail.

If you were specifically looking at the $10/month package from Airvoice and if T-Mobile GSM coverage will work for your area (it should), try contacting Platinumtel and find out if your number can be ported to them. Per minute charges are a penny higher on their Real PayGo service, but data charges are 23¢ lower per MB. You shouldn't have any trouble using them if your phone's carrier unlocked, either. Data speeds might be slower than you're used to, though.

My greatest concern is that Airvoice can't port your number... if Airvoice can't, I'm a bit worried that others might not either, including Google and Platinumtel. Just for curiosity sake, who's your current provider?

Thanks for the info I.P!  My current provider is AT & T.  Airvoice told me that they stopped porting Chicagoland area codes in the past year and did not foresee the possibility of porting them in the future.  I was also looking into PTel, but for some reason service on the Sprint network can be a little wonky where I live even though their coverage map says otherwise. I haven't ruled out PTel completely yet and I will check to see if they can port Chicagoland numbers. 

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #457 on: February 28, 2013, 02:30:55 PM »
Thanks for the info I.P!  My current provider is AT & T.  Airvoice told me that they stopped porting Chicagoland area codes in the past year and did not foresee the possibility of porting them in the future.  I was also looking into PTel, but for some reason service on the Sprint network can be a little wonky where I live even though their coverage map says otherwise. I haven't ruled out PTel completely yet and I will check to see if they can port Chicagoland numbers.

Actually, P'tel is a T-Mobile GSM MVNO as of this last December, which is specifically why I'd mentioned them as an alternative. Good Great Lakes region coverage, and you could still use the phone you've got so long as it's carrier unlocked.

It almost sounds like AT&T's dinking with fees. Check with P'tel, if they can't do it either, you can always try Google, but I wouldn't hold much hope at that point. If you do hit that sort of wall where nobody can port your number, file a complaint with the FCC.

ChicagoGirl

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #458 on: February 28, 2013, 02:41:44 PM »
Thanks for the info I.P!  My current provider is AT & T.  Airvoice told me that they stopped porting Chicagoland area codes in the past year and did not foresee the possibility of porting them in the future.  I was also looking into PTel, but for some reason service on the Sprint network can be a little wonky where I live even though their coverage map says otherwise. I haven't ruled out PTel completely yet and I will check to see if they can port Chicagoland numbers.

Actually, P'tel is a T-Mobile GSM MVNO as of this last December, which is specifically why I'd mentioned them as an alternative. Good Great Lakes region coverage, and you could still use the phone you've got so long as it's carrier unlocked.

It almost sounds like AT&T's dinking with fees. Check with P'tel, if they can't do it either, you can always try Google, but I wouldn't hold much hope at that point. If you do hit that sort of wall where nobody can port your number, file a complaint with the FCC.

I talked to PTel just now and they said they can port my area code with no problem from AT & T.  So, PTel looks like a much better option than going the GV route and forwarding.  Thanks for the info and posting quickly, much appreciated!  Also, I agree that AT & T has somehow made things difficult for Airvoice to port for some reason.

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #459 on: February 28, 2013, 02:48:25 PM »
I've decided to go with Ting for cell provider. I've also decided to go for a smart phone this time. My requirements are simple: the phone has to be global, which means it has to have both gsm and cdma and it has to run Android. also asked Ting if there was any restriction on the kind of phones I could bring in, and they said that it has to be a Sprint phone with a clean ESN. I don't really understand why that is, I'm pretty new at this stuff.

This is due to Sprint network carrier restrictions. The phone's ESN has to be in Sprint's network pool to work, which means it also needs to be a device that hasn't been reported as stolen or still under contract with Sprint. As for the restriction on it being already out of service at point of activation rings to some sort of limitation in Sprint's provisioning services and the need for clean activation and deactivation of handsets on their network when activating through their MVNO partners. I'm afraid I can't get much more technical than that.

Sprint Android World Phones are a tall order, I've tried looking, and it looks like you found the only models that are technically available. Depending on your usage habits since you're starting fresh with hardware, it might just be easier to go with a GSM carrier for your area, either Airvoice, Platinumtel or GoSmart. It really depends on your usage habits, though.

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #460 on: February 28, 2013, 02:52:50 PM »
I talked to PTel just now and they said they can port my area code with no problem from AT & T.  So, PTel looks like a much better option than going the GV route and forwarding.  Thanks for the info and posting quickly, much appreciated!  Also, I agree that AT & T has somehow made things difficult for Airvoice to port for some reason.

It might have something to do with the fact that Airvoice is reselling AT&T services... might be some asinine non-compete clause or something as I know Airvoice operates out of the Great Lakes area. Dunno.

Anyway, always glad to help... and if you or anyone else are interested, there's additional ways to show your gratitude on my website. :)

mm31

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #461 on: February 28, 2013, 03:33:40 PM »
This is due to Sprint network carrier restrictions. The phone's ESN has to be in Sprint's network pool to work, which means it also needs to be a device that hasn't been reported as stolen or still under contract with Sprint. As for the restriction on it being already out of service at point of activation rings to some sort of limitation in Sprint's provisioning services and the need for clean activation and deactivation of handsets on their network when activating through their MVNO partners. I'm afraid I can't get much more technical than that.

Sprint Android World Phones are a tall order, I've tried looking, and it looks like you found the only models that are technically available. Depending on your usage habits since you're starting fresh with hardware, it might just be easier to go with a GSM carrier for your area, either Airvoice, Platinumtel or GoSmart. It really depends on your usage habits, though.

Thanks for the explanation.  I was pretty horrified at how the cell phone market works here, when I learned about how things work in the rest of the world: buy a phone that works for you at full price, choose your carrier, buy SIM card, done.  MVNOs are definitely a step forward and I can only hope more innovations will come from them. We need them.

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #462 on: February 28, 2013, 05:23:12 PM »
Thanks for the explanation.  I was pretty horrified at how the cell phone market works here, when I learned about how things work in the rest of the world: buy a phone that works for you at full price, choose your carrier, buy SIM card, done.  MVNOs are definitely a step forward and I can only hope more innovations will come from them. We need them.

No worries, and that's why I'm here. Part of the reason for the difficulties that I didn't mention that might help shed a bit more light on the issue is that the United States is one of the last places on earth that has a dominant presence of CDMA networks, which aren't compatible with the rest of the world's GSM networks, and Sprint and Verizon are the two primary owners of that said network, with US Cellular and Leap Wireless bringing up the rear on CDMA network marketshare. This means that Ting, as a Sprint MVNO, is a CDMA carrier, and CDMA carriers don't play well with each other and handset portability because the service is tied to the hardware and not a SIM card like GSM services are.

There's GSM service in the US through AT&T, T-Mobile and their affiliated MVNOs, but we have our own twisted spin on it in relation to the bulk of the rest of the world as well... just like our CDMA network. You see, while most of the rest of the world runs on GSM 900 and 1800MHz bands, North America is standardized on GSM 850 and 1900MHz bands, which AT&T is the prominent provider of GSM service in those bands in the US. Finally, to complicate things further with data service in the US, T-Mobile is pretty much the only carrier in the world that runs their high-speed data services on GSM 1700MHz bands, which means that only pentaband T-Mobile GSM handsets can get high speed HSPA data on T-Mobile's network in most markets... this is why you'll notice people complaining about taking their iPhone in this country over to T-Mobile results in only getting EDGE data speeds most places. This issue is changing slowly later this year due to various legal agreements after the failed AT&T-T-Mobile merger a couple years back, but to say things are fragmented in this country is a bit of an understatement, and LTE service deployment is not helping matters.

Behold the colorful telecommunications landscape that unregulated free market industry has blessed our glorious country with! Fragmented networks, cheaper service through third party service resellers than the network owners, ridiculous handset subsidies and contracts, and blatant price fixing and collusion. It's breathtaking, no?
« Last Edit: February 28, 2013, 05:25:15 PM by I.P. Daley »

TheDude

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #463 on: February 28, 2013, 08:34:38 PM »
I.P. that was a wonderful critique of the cellular industry!

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #464 on: March 01, 2013, 08:03:42 AM »
And yet, I feel that even that does not do the entire convoluted mess justice given I didn't even touch on the nuanced issues of bandwidth licensing, the decommissioning of AMPS and TDMA services, the proliferation of smaller network operators in the 90's and the network mergers and acquisitions of the aughts, the various FCC and FTC wheelings and dealings trying to manage those mergers and acquisitions...

It's just messy.

maryofdoom

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #465 on: March 01, 2013, 08:13:25 AM »
Daley, I need your help. I've read through much of your walls of text, and I am a reasonably smart person (see avatar) but I am stumped, and I'm hoping you can give me a hand.

The husband and I have phone service through Verizon. I already get a discount on it because of where I work (thanks, university!) but our contracts are up at the end of April and the end of May, respectively, and I want to make a change, because I am sick of paying so much for phone service.

I have a Droid X and he has a Samsung Convoy. Both phones work well and I'd like to keep using them, if I could. A bonus: the Verizon network is the most reliable one in our area. He's had AT&T in the past and has had problems with it; ditto Sprint.

I am intrigued about using WiFi for data on my smartphone, since I mostly use data when I am watching the hockey game and Tweeting about it to my pals. This always happens at home, where I have WiFi service. I also have access to a free WiFi network at work.

Husband has a dumb phone and has no desire to get a smartphone. He mostly uses the phone to call me, take pictures of things he finds amusing, and sometimes text.

Help me, Daley, you're my only hope. :)

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #466 on: March 01, 2013, 09:33:50 AM »
Mary, it might help if I had a better idea of overall usage each of you have with services, but the whole Verizon thing and wanting to use your existing handsets narrows you down to one choice: Page Plus. At this point, it'll probably be worth it to wait out the contracts on your handsets, but once they're done, you shouldn't have any problem at all just taking the whole kit and caboodle over to Page Plus. You'll just need to sit down with a few months worth of bills and work out the average minute/text usage you each have per month inclusive (in network and night/weekend as well) so you know what plans to best select there. The nice thing about their monthly plans is that you can actually run a pay as you go balance above and beyond for overages or to cover in a spot where it doesn't make much financial sense to bump up to the next tier of service.
« Last Edit: March 01, 2013, 09:35:44 AM by I.P. Daley »

maryofdoom

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #467 on: March 01, 2013, 09:43:16 AM »
Awesome, awesome, awesome. I will check out PagePlus.

We're on the lowest tier for Verizon's family plan (700 anytime minutes, 500 text messages, and a grandfathered unlimited data plan). We mostly call one another, which doesn't use up minutes; the most text messages I ever used was ~250 in October, when I was on a business trip with co-workers who all text; and I don't need even 2 GB of data. For example, I've used 556 MB of data this "month" with five days left on my cycle.

Thank you again for your advice.

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #468 on: March 01, 2013, 10:02:12 AM »
We mostly call one another, which doesn't use up minutes; the most text messages I ever used was ~250 in October, when I was on a business trip with co-workers who all text; and I don't need even 2 GB of data.

Keep in mind that there's a reason why I suggested you calculate and count those numbers in your figuring as well, because you'll lose your free in-network calling when you switch over. I just don't want you to be surprised and run out of minutes two weeks into whatever plan you've chosen.

Anyway, glad to be of help!

maryofdoom

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #469 on: March 01, 2013, 10:08:50 AM »
It's looking more and more like I need PagePlus's $29.95 plan, while the husband will probably be best served by the $12.00 plan. I'm going to do some tinkering with the WiFi settings on my phone while it's still covered under the Verizon plan, to see if I can get it to work on my home's WiFi network for the apps I use around here.

Plus I like the option of adding more features when they are needed.

Hooray! (I'm going to stop adding to this massive thread now. :)

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #470 on: March 01, 2013, 10:42:09 AM »
It's looking more and more like I need PagePlus's $29.95 plan, while the husband will probably be best served by the $12.00 plan. I'm going to do some tinkering with the WiFi settings on my phone while it's still covered under the Verizon plan, to see if I can get it to work on my home's WiFi network for the apps I use around here.

Plus I like the option of adding more features when they are needed.

Hooray! (I'm going to stop adding to this massive thread now. :)

Eh, what's another half dozen posts on a 470 post thread? ;)

I do want to ask, how many of those minutes/texts that you're using are you using at home, and how many of those texts are just with your husband or a couple other friends. Given you're using an Android device, and if you're home most of the time... again, I'm not a huge fan of Google Voice, but using that for your texting on your end (especially at home) with your most frequently texted people would help cut some of the SMS overhead for your plan, and if you're at home a lot anyway and doing the Google Voice thing to keep texting costs lower with your husband, you could throw an Obi100 into the mix and have a "free" home phone for making and receiving calls on that aren't eating cell minutes as well. I always advocate going with higher quality VoIP services at home, but if you don't care about the privacy issues or reliability or proper e911 support, it's a good option. You could always slip in a GV over WiFi calling app like Sipdroid or Talkatone as well, but if you're dealing with a public WiFi network at work and knowing how the credentials are being handed off and the lack of security, I wouldn't recommend doing that on your phone... but texting would be fine over the WiFi at work, and texting and the phone at home would be good as well.

As for the data restrictions, you should be able to turn nearly everything off of ever using 3G services except stuff like email, Kik, GV, etc. Make sure software updates aren't done through anything but WiFi, kill the data usage on the Maps app, stuff like that. With all that stuff active on my Intercept, I don't use more than about 15MB a month at screaming most through the 3G network.

maryofdoom

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #471 on: March 01, 2013, 11:01:57 AM »
Oddly enough, I hardly ever text my husband. I usually text my sisters, my lady friends, and my co-workers. Since the husband has a dumb phone, it takes him forever to type out a text, and so it's just easier to call him and leave him a message if he's not around.

The time when I came close to using all my texts was when I was on a business trip with four other people from the office, and we texted to meet up for dinner and other events like that. I am going on a trip in October with a bunch of lady friends where I will probably want to be texting them a lot, but I could bump up a PagePlus prepaid plan for just that month and then drop back to a cheaper plan when I get home.

We don't have any type of a home phone - the cell phones have worked just fine for that in the past. Also, the longest conversation I have on the phone is a weekly phone call to my parents, who live in CO. I call them Sundays and we usually talk for about half an hour. Some kind of VoIP solution would be a good choice for phone calls that originate at home, like calling the parents.

Work offers two public networks and one private network. I'm not sure what the security settings are like on the public networks, but one of them is the one that reaches about ten blocks from campus, so it's huge.

I can tell that this is not going to be an all-or-nothing proposition, more of a gradual adjustment over time. But the husband seems to be on board, which is great.

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #472 on: March 01, 2013, 11:15:23 AM »
Sounds like you're starting to get there with the process, though!

Work offers two public networks and one private network. I'm not sure what the security settings are like on the public networks, but one of them is the one that reaches about ten blocks from campus, so it's huge.

As for the security settings on the public network, they don't matter much on the subject at hand unless effort has been made to isolate each connected individual on the network, and even then. Let's just say that if you knew what one with experienced hands could do with a tool like BackTrack Linux (or any *nix distro similarly configured for that matter) on a public WiFi network...

This is why I'm a bit of a stickler about password management and security configurations on third party apps that shunt your username and password off to a remote server like Talkatone does. Security may be a bit of an illusion on public networks, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't exercise prudence and common sense to reduce risk and make your info not worth the effort anyway.
« Last Edit: March 01, 2013, 11:18:58 AM by I.P. Daley »

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #473 on: March 04, 2013, 02:16:08 PM »
Here's a follow-up to the carrier unlocking issue and subsequent petition:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/white-house-calls-for-cell-phone-unlocking-ban-to-be-overturned/

Positive words, but words don't mean squat until the decision is reversed and the law taken off the books. We shall see what happens.

TheDude

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #474 on: March 04, 2013, 05:58:47 PM »
Hey I.P. thanks for posting that. I saw that earlier but didn't have time to post anything. At least its got some response. Hopefully something will be done about it.

mm31

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #475 on: March 05, 2013, 11:35:25 AM »
Here's a follow-up to the carrier unlocking issue and subsequent petition:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/white-house-calls-for-cell-phone-unlocking-ban-to-be-overturned/

Positive words, but words don't mean squat until the decision is reversed and the law taken off the books. We shall see what happens.

Funny, I just rooted and unlocked my Evo Design. I much prefer stock android to anything these carriers are offering. That's kinda sad

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #476 on: March 05, 2013, 03:44:08 PM »
Reporting in to say that I just got my unlock approval from AT&T!  Of all the derping and face-planting I've done along the way, I'm going to be an AirVoice user but soon!  :D

Now I just need to decide on porting over my seemingly "clean" ie, not recycled temporary AT&T GoPhone number (which is a catchy, easy to remember number but indicates that I am county folk on a landline on caller ID) or let Airvoice give me a new number.  I have had NO wrong numbers or any calls at all from other than friends on this number, so I kind of like it.  But I'm not in the town it says I'm in. Thoughts?

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #477 on: March 05, 2013, 04:04:03 PM »
Reporting in to say that I just got my unlock approval from AT&T!  Of all the derping and face-planting I've done along the way, I'm going to be an AirVoice user but soon!  :D

Now I just need to decide on porting over my seemingly "clean" ie, not recycled temporary AT&T GoPhone number (which is a catchy, easy to remember number but indicates that I am county folk on a landline on caller ID) or let Airvoice give me a new number.  I have had NO wrong numbers or any calls at all from other than friends on this number, so I kind of like it.  But I'm not in the town it says I'm in. Thoughts?

Congrats!

As for the number you have versus the number you might get... if you like the AT&T GoPhone number and it's easy to remember, port it over! Who cares if it's not spatially accurate to your billing address? Also, it's entirely possible that if you do port that number, the CID name will be changed to the generic "Wireless Caller" anyway.

KulshanGirl

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #478 on: March 05, 2013, 04:17:04 PM »
The thing is, the prefix is very well known in these parts as a (podunk farmtown name deleted) prefix.  The area is um ... conservative.  Of the footloose sort of variety.  It a cheerful little ditty to say, but also feels kind of ooky when I give people in town my number.  I always want to add ... it's a new bank of cell numbers!  I'm not from (podunk farmtown name deleted)!!!!

Just as an aside, it also contains the devil's mark.  LOL!  I think maybe this town gave up all possible numbers with "666" in a row contained in it to the cell phone companies.  Hehe.

Anyhoo, if AirVoice is just going to slap me another (podunk farmtown name deleted) prefix on my new phone, I'd just as soon keep my unholy devil number and call it good.  Maybe I could call and ask if they can check on the bank of numbers available? 

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #479 on: March 05, 2013, 04:23:48 PM »
Sounds like a personal judgment call that you'll just have to work out for yourself.

Anyhoo, if AirVoice is just going to slap me another (podunk farmtown name deleted) prefix on my new phone, I'd just as soon keep my unholy devil number and call it good.  Maybe I could call and ask if they can check on the bank of numbers available?

Never hurts to ask. :)

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #480 on: March 07, 2013, 08:21:38 AM »
Brief update for those of you in Clearwire WiMAX/FreedomPop territory:

FreedomPop has just recently announced that they're launching a home broadband service using the same Clearwire WiMAX wireless network that their mobile devices are using. Their pricing structure appears to be $1/GB in $10 chunks per month, with the first 1GB gratis. If you've had positive experience with WiMAX services in the past either through Clearwire or FreedomPop, this might be worth looking into... especially if you're fine with FreedomPop's privacy policy and don't figure your usage will run afoul of their AUP.

Their webpage regarding home internet service can be found here.

Given this new bit of news in addition to the announcement a couple months back about FreedomPop rolling out cheap voice and text services through a partnership with textPlus with their mobile offerings, they're certainly making a big splash and doing some interesting things in the marketplace. My concerns regarding radiation exposure levels with mobile wireless data is still a concern given these are clearly going to be all data-based services, but those concerns can be mitigated depending on device location on the body and usage of a headset. There's also the incredibly high MVNO failure rate in this country with newer providers to be concerned about, which is why I tend to hang close to recommending providers who have been able to hang tough in the cutthroat marketplace and appear to be surviving (like Airvoice, Page Plus and Platinumtel) or are directly owned and operated by their MNO provider (like GoSmart and Virgin Mobile), but if FreedomPop's business model stabilizes towards the profitability end and the recent Clearwire buyout shenanigans don't tank their continued viability, this could be a promising development.

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #481 on: March 10, 2013, 07:37:13 PM »
Goodness, there's a fair bit of new stuff shaking out here lately in the MVNO field.

First, as Z has already pointed out in another thread, Airvoice has finally introduced automated plan refills. Don't sign up for the refill option until you next need to refill in general.

Additionally, Roam Mobility (a Canadian outfit) has just launched Ready SIM here in the US. It's a T-Mobile MVNO from the looks of things (which makes sense given the massive T-Mo push into the MVNO market here lately), and they're designing the service around a more specialized disposable service model, not that you can't keep using your SIM card and phone number, but SIM cards appear to be tied to certain plan models. There is no number porting from the looks of things, but activation is "anonymous" and fast. They also hopper all their web traffic through their own proxies... so it likely wouldn't be wise to do anything really secure with the internet connection. However, they do allow tethering and they're throwing around the "unlimited" term pretty loosely outside of data usage.

Ars Technica had a write-up on it today, and it was an interesting read... however, you can tell that Cyrus Farivar isn't quite into the deep end of MVNOs as we are around these parts. I quite doubt that this'll be a very useful service for most folks around these parts outside of mustachian tourists passing through the country and wanting phone service, but it's worth mentioning anyway.

frugalman

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Get Pre Cut Sim Cards for Airvoice for iphone 4 and 5 on Ebay
« Reply #482 on: March 11, 2013, 12:14:55 PM »
To get a SIM card, just go to eBay and look for Airvoice.  Not only are the SIMs on eBay super cheap (about $1-$4 including shipping), but vendors sell official Airvoice SIMs that have been trimmed down.  The iPhone 3 (and earlier) takes a normal SIM, the iPhone 4 and 4s takes a Micro SIM, and the iPhone 5 takes a Nano SIM. Get the right one and there is no need to get a SIM cutter.

This was lifted from a very nice blog regarding Airvoice and iphones:

http://bikeskidsmoney.electrongarden.com/saving-money/airvoice-wireless

mm31

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #483 on: March 11, 2013, 03:18:47 PM »
What do people use for making calls over wifi w/ android? I use Google Voice along with GrooveIP and Talkatone and people are having problems hearing my voice, although I can hear them fine. Most of the calls I'm making are to 1-800 numbers (customer service), if that makes a difference.

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #484 on: March 11, 2013, 03:38:56 PM »
What do people use for making calls over wifi w/ android? I use Google Voice along with GrooveIP and Talkatone and people are having problems hearing my voice, although I can hear them fine. Most of the calls I'm making are to 1-800 numbers (customer service), if that makes a difference.

That's part of your problem right there... you're using Google Voice which has quality problems itself over a data connection through a third party VoIP provider being run on a smartphone on top of contacting call centers that're on some relatively laggy VoIP services themselves. I simply won't do 800#'s through GV anymore (or have done for years) for very similar reasons. Between the signal delay and quality...

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #485 on: March 13, 2013, 10:03:16 AM »
Quick question: I'm looking into getting out of my wife and my AT&T iPhone plans and getting PlatinumTel's $40/mo. unlimited plan. My concern is regarding data speed. The website says the first 250MB of data is "high speed"; do you know what that means and what the speed is after you go over that initial 250MB?

I'm considering using the PlatinumTel plan for a while before making a further jump down to Airvoice $10/mo. plan + FreedomPop.

Thanks!

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #486 on: March 13, 2013, 10:31:04 AM »
Quick question: I'm looking into getting out of my wife and my AT&T iPhone plans and getting PlatinumTel's $40/mo. unlimited plan. My concern is regarding data speed. The website says the first 250MB of data is "high speed"; do you know what that means and what the speed is after you go over that initial 250MB?

I'm considering using the PlatinumTel plan for a while before making a further jump down to Airvoice $10/mo. plan + FreedomPop.

Thanks!

The speed cut is a reduction to EDGE 2G data speeds (a little faster than dial-up). The thing is, until later this year in most markets, that's all you're going to get in speed on the T-Mobile network with iPhones anyway due to 3G HSPA GSM band incompatibility between them and AT&T. The speed is more than sufficient for most communications data like e-mail and text messages and whatnot, but anything heavily graphics intensive will be slower. Online GPS will be difficult, but not impossible, and there's offline maps available to cut down on data usage anyway. It'll pretty much just tank streaming media. If a desktop can handle only using 3Mbps down or slower, your mobile phone can handle 64kbps down or slower... and truthfully, you'll kind of want slower data speeds if you want to reduce data usage and reliance anyway.

If you feel it necessary to fall into the "unlimited" trap and don't mind the slower data speeds, you'll get cheaper through T-Mobile's own GoSmart Mobile who has a $35/month "unlimited" everything that just default runs the data at the slower speed. The reason why Platinumtel's bundles are a bit more costly is due to their inclusion of international SMS as a default part of the plan. If you add that service onto GoSmart's plans, the prices are identical.

Just remember, Airvoice isn't the only GSM MVNO party in town... and there's very good things to say about Platinumtel's own Real PayGo rates in comparison to Airvoice's $10/month plan. You might lose 50 minutes of talk time for every $10 spent, but you gain ~70MB of available data if need be. ;)

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #487 on: March 13, 2013, 11:10:59 AM »
I'm headed down to Sao Paulo, Brazil for 6mo. Any thoughts on a cheap smartphone + data solution? Ideally, something my number in the US could forward to.

Unfortunately, my current phones don't have a SIM card slot (PCS).

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #488 on: March 13, 2013, 11:13:47 AM »
Thanks for your quick response Daley! Is Airvoice's web speed the same? Or is it high speed considering that it uses AT&T's network?

Thank you

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #489 on: March 13, 2013, 11:22:43 AM »
Thanks for your quick response Daley! Is Airvoice's web speed the same? Or is it high speed considering that it uses AT&T's network?

Thank you

It'll be the same data speeds you get with AT&T on Airvoice. Again, though... cell phones don't need as much data throughput as you'd think unless you're wasting money on streaming media services.

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #490 on: March 13, 2013, 11:36:44 AM »
I'm headed down to Sao Paulo, Brazil for 6mo. Any thoughts on a cheap smartphone + data solution? Ideally, something my number in the US could forward to.

Unfortunately, my current phones don't have a SIM card slot (PCS).

I have a feeling you mean you're running CDMA, but I get the idea. Options are going to depend on whether you want a dedicated phone for down in Brazil or one that you can keep using both with your current provider and down in Brazil on a GSM network.

As for number forwarding in the US, that's also going to depend on how much you're willing to spend and what you're willing to do with that number. You could port it over to a VoIP service like Future Nine (who has some of the cheapest international rates available) and have incoming calls physically forwarded to your Brazillian wireless number, or you could just set up a SIP client on the smartphone for receiving calls when you're on WiFi, etc. through the VoIP provider, which would be far cheaper. Google Voice utilizing Talkatone or whatnot might be an option as well, but there's a lot of caveats that I've covered repeatedly in this thread and elsewhere about some of the risks and caveats of the service. You ultimately get what you pay for.

I could probably get a bit more nuts and bolts technical with the advice with more details and what you're desiring to do overall. Drop me a private message if you like.

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #491 on: March 13, 2013, 11:42:15 AM »
Follow up to the following post regarding carrier unlocking GSM phones for those interested, by the way:

Here's a follow-up to the carrier unlocking issue and subsequent petition:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/white-house-calls-for-cell-phone-unlocking-ban-to-be-overturned/

Positive words, but words don't mean squat until the decision is reversed and the law taken off the books. We shall see what happens.

The Government Might Want To Legalize Phone Unlocking, But Unfortunately It Signed Away That Right

Here's the most relevant bit:
Quote
The White House position, however, may be inconsistent with the U.S. proposal in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and existing obligations in the Korea U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) and other free trade agreements to which the United States is a party. This demonstrates the danger of including in international agreements rigid provisions that do not accommodate technological development.

KORUS obligates the United States and Korea to adopt provisions concerning the technological protection measures based on section 1201 of the DMCA. Furthermore, KORUS mandates that the parties "confine exceptions and limitations" to the circumvention prohibition to a specific list of exceptions that matches the specific exceptions in the DMCA. Cell phone unlocking, of course, is not on that list. KORUS does allow for administrative procedures like the DMCA's rule-making to adopt temporary exemptions, but not permanent ones. The challenge before Congress is to devise a permanent exception for cell phone unlocking that does not breach the obligations under KORUS and other similar free trade agreements.

The draft text for TPP is secret, but the U.S. proposal for the IP chapter was leaked two years ago. The leaked proposal contained KORUS's closed list of exceptions. Because TPP is currently under negotiation, there still is time to make sure that the TPP does not prevent national governments, including the United States, from amending their laws to permit the unlocking of cell phones and other wireless devices.

tl;dr: Good luck reversing it, international agreements, copyright law and secretly negotiated policies have us by the short and curlies... sucks to be us.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2013, 11:45:02 AM by I.P. Daley »

KulshanGirl

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #492 on: March 13, 2013, 09:17:58 PM »
Just wanted to share this important phone accessory I found!  :) 

http://www.neatorama.com/2013/03/12/Mustache-Phoney/


Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #493 on: March 25, 2013, 06:31:49 PM »
Brief update for existing P'tel users who haven't switched from CDMA to GSM yet:

Estimated target cut-off for transitioning will now be around May-June of this year. When I get a more accurate timeframe, I'll pass the info along.

Spork

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #494 on: March 26, 2013, 10:44:42 AM »
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask (or if it should fall in Ask a M'ian)... but diving in anyway.

I scanned the bigger of your (I.P.'s) posts and also searched for instances of "rural"... without a lot of hits.

What do you suggest for rural internet?

Background:
* a bit of a techie (unix weenie since late 80s).
* tendency to not be an early adopter
* currently our primary internet is Verizon 3G (dongle plugged into a router).  We're paying about $63 a month.
* current usage is about 6G a month, which is right on the edge of our cap.  If we had better throughput, we'd use more.  (We can't do streaming video at all.)
* current bandwidth is about 800k down (and that's on a good day.  It varies a lot.)
* cable not available
* DSL not available (even though there is what appears to be a DSLAM about 1000 ft away from us)
* I've tried getting a dry pair to "a place where there is lots of free bandwidth" to do the "roll your own DSL".  I could never find anyone at Southwestern Bell that I could get to understand what I was asking for.  (And... unfortunately my connection to "the place of free bandwidth" has sort of dried up.)
* satellite fair use policies make my flesh crawl
* looking on coverage maps, I seem to be right on the edge of 4g coverage with Verizon.  And, knowing the terrain, I suspect I am just far enough behind a hill to be SOL.   
* there is one WISP that I *think* I could hit, but it would be $70 (plus TTL) for not much more bandwidth than I already have.

Suggestions?  Am I missing a clever solution (or even an obvious one?)
« Last Edit: March 26, 2013, 10:46:24 AM by Spork »

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #495 on: March 27, 2013, 05:25:56 PM »
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask (or if it should fall in Ask a M'ian)... but diving in anyway.

I scanned the bigger of your (I.P.'s) posts and also searched for instances of "rural"... without a lot of hits.

What do you suggest for rural internet?

Background:
* a bit of a techie (unix weenie since late 80s).
* tendency to not be an early adopter
* currently our primary internet is Verizon 3G (dongle plugged into a router).  We're paying about $63 a month.
* current usage is about 6G a month, which is right on the edge of our cap.  If we had better throughput, we'd use more.  (We can't do streaming video at all.)
* current bandwidth is about 800k down (and that's on a good day.  It varies a lot.)
* cable not available
* DSL not available (even though there is what appears to be a DSLAM about 1000 ft away from us)
* I've tried getting a dry pair to "a place where there is lots of free bandwidth" to do the "roll your own DSL".  I could never find anyone at Southwestern Bell that I could get to understand what I was asking for.  (And... unfortunately my connection to "the place of free bandwidth" has sort of dried up.)
* satellite fair use policies make my flesh crawl
* looking on coverage maps, I seem to be right on the edge of 4g coverage with Verizon.  And, knowing the terrain, I suspect I am just far enough behind a hill to be SOL.   
* there is one WISP that I *think* I could hit, but it would be $70 (plus TTL) for not much more bandwidth than I already have.

Suggestions?  Am I missing a clever solution (or even an obvious one?)

I'm afraid not, man. I've tackled the rural communications thing for years for my parents. As it stands, the best solution for them (in a very similar situation) has been a traditional POTS telephone through AT&T *spits*, long distance through Pioneer Telephone and a bit of Google Voice usage, Dish Welcome Pack for television (way out in the sticks behind a hill), and internet through AT&T Wireless *spits* (same setup as you) because they're just too far and behind a hill for Verizon LTE as well. They're getting hit for about $110 a month give or take... it's not pretty, but it's miraculously far more for the money than they used to get... and they couldn't even get better than dial-up speeds until last year due to their conveniently shaped reception dead zone extending 100 feet in every direction from the center of their house for nearly every major wireless carrier, and that was using a wireless company. Actual dial-up capped out at 28.8kbps.

I too have deep reservations with satellite, even the LEO stuff coming online, and WISPs have a nasty habit of drying up and blowing away as no less than three WISPs have come and gone out in their neck of the woods in the past five years, and when questioned about throughput, throttling, bandwidth to user ratio, security and reliability... the answers always came back dodgy. An old high-school buddy is even the local line tech for the telco out by my parents; talked with him extensively about the prospects of DSL out there to no avail. The problem is, the relay closets require a massive infrastructure upgrade by the telco just to bring DSL out, and they just don't give a toss about that because fiber and wireless are their cash cows and the return isn't worth it... which also explains why the line quality in rural areas can't even support 56k dial-up (I know the specific technical reasons, but won't go into it here). Basically, if you're not in even a light density population center, thems the options, and you've pretty well exhausted it already.

Sorry, chum. If you want better, you'll have to either move or continue being patient for those incremental improvements.

Spork

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #496 on: March 27, 2013, 05:37:29 PM »
That has, so far, been my assessment.... but thanks for another perspective.

If I cut down some really pretty 50+ foot trees at the front of my property I could probably (?) hit a tower that is owned by a friendly and has fiber access to a friendly.  But that's a lot of maybes.  And I love those trees.

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #497 on: April 01, 2013, 04:49:15 PM »
Streaming entertainment news update:

Aereo just had a bit of success handed down today from the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals, where it was determined that their crazy approach of individual tiny antennas for each user that was built off the logic established by the 2008 Cablevision remote DVR ruling provides for fair use in internet rebroadcast of OTA television to end users. They're not out of the woods yet, but despite the rediculous overengineering done to allow for this service to operate legally within the modern copyright system, it appears to be standing up to scrutiny. As such, Aereo appears to be moving apace in rolling the service out to 22 more cities this year, including several major Eastern Seaboard and Midwestern markets. As for why I hadn't really mentioned this in the past, it's because it's only available to NYC residents currently (plus the partially untried legal waters bit which appears to be getting less perilous)... as they expand markets, it should increase in its usefulness to general mustachians who still want their TV fix.

I'm hardly suggesting this is the most efficient usage of one's money on the entertainment budget end, but it could prove useful as a reasonable alternative for those who don't get good OTA reception or want to keep some form of DVR in the mix and don't want to resort to the cost of TiVo or the electricity it uses, and the shows desired aren't readily available online for streaming legally or otherwise. That said, I must admit I do quite enjoy the nearly absurdest engineering feats that have been created to make this service possible... it's not very efficient from a resource standpoint, but that's more an expressed function of the nature of modern copyright law than the technology itself.
« Last Edit: April 01, 2013, 04:52:43 PM by I.P. Daley »

Jane

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #498 on: April 19, 2013, 09:30:04 AM »
Sorry if this has been covered - I read through this post and have tried searching (both on here and Google), but has anyone had luck with using a Sprint iPhone 4 on Airvoice or other MNVO? I've read conflicting things about if and how they unlock phones. My contract is up soon with Sprint so I'm looking for cheaper alternatives.

Daley

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Re: Communications & Tech - The ISP, VoIP and Cellphone Superguide
« Reply #499 on: April 19, 2013, 09:37:41 AM »
Sorry if this has been covered - I read through this post and have tried searching (both on here and Google), but has anyone had luck with using a Sprint iPhone 4 on Airvoice or other MNVO? I've read conflicting things about if and how they unlock phones. My contract is up soon with Sprint so I'm looking for cheaper alternatives.

The Sprint iPhone 4 is a CDMA device, and is incompatible with the AT&T GSM network, which is what Airvoice uses. You might be able to take the device to Virgin Mobile, as VM is a Sprint-owned MVNO, but be prepared to eat at least a $35/month bill. iPhones are expensive, doubly so on a CDMA network. If you find yourself in a situation where you're evaluating whether you might need a new handset to move to a cheaper and better fitting provider to your needs, might I suggest reading this first.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!