I set it up and everything is fine on my HTC EVO 4G I just had a question about the services. I know I can call and text anyone in the US or Canada totally free however! My question as an American becomes does the Canadian person get the call as local or long distance?
Like if I called the US it'd be free to me and obviously local to the other American, if I called Canada it's still free to me but my problem becomes "what about their bill?"
Here in Europe it's working this way: You would pay the rate for reaching the canadian boarder (so you pay national fees only) and the person you called pays his/her national fees only, too. Now i'm rather unsure how it's working in the USA, but i guess it should be the same :O
price rance
m00k00 said:
Here in Europe it's working this way: You would pay the rate for reaching the canadian boarder (so you pay national fees only) and the person you called pays his/her national fees only, too. Now i'm rather unsure how it's working in the USA, but i guess it should be the same :O
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for US to US calling its completely free landlines cell phones
everything
it should have the same rates as if you had installed the Voice chat plugin (phone add in) on your gmail on PC??
i take it google voice is simply a mobile version of that???
call billing on the receiver never varies based on the origin of the call (unless it's a toll call, but you have to accept that charge ahead of time).
As the person receiving the call, you never have to worry about picking up a ringing phone aside from it using minutes/megabytes/etc. Think about the days before callerID, how could you predict who was calling? That's just not the way phone termination works.
NV-3D said:
for US to US calling its completely free landlines cell phones
everything
it should have the same rates as if you had installed the Voice chat plugin (phone add in) on your gmail on PC??
i take it google voice is simply a mobile version of that???
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thanks a lot helped me for sure
Related
I apologize if this is in the wrong section.
I wanted to ask regarding something I heard from an AT&T rep.
This guy told me that any new smartphone coming out will require a data plan and that you are unable to buy a phone without data plan. I understand that much, but then he added that if you get a smartphone and put in your AT&T SIM card, you will automatically be charged a data-plan fee.
So I may have to rely on getting an unlocked or a used smartphone but does anyone else know if this is true that putting in your sim card in it will charge you? I'm talking about AT&T US.
Any love :-( ?
It's absolutely true. If you put your sim in a smart phone, you don't have to notify AT&T ythat ou have one. The phone will be recognized as a smart phone and a data plan will automatically be placed your bill.
Grrr...even if its unlocked?
It just amazes me how in America phone service providers try to squeeze out as much money as they possibly can from you. Every other country I have been to have all had reasonable prices and reasonable charges (i.e. they don't charge you for recieving an SMS or a call)
theomni said:
Grrr...even if its unlocked?
It just amazes me how in America phone service providers try to squeeze out as much money as they possibly can from you. Every other country I have been to have all had reasonable prices and reasonable charges (i.e. they don't charge you for recieving an SMS or a call)
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Thanks you for the post.
On AT&T going to Ireland then England. Any tricks other than paying att their ridiculous price to have calling/texting while I'm there? Maybe through Google voice? Or does that need data?
Thanks!
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If you're gonna be strictly communicating with people back in the states, then the smart thing is to stay with Google voice via PC. However, if you plan on communicating with people in Europe for an extended period of time, then unlock your phone and go with an EU Virgin Mobile prepaid plan.
I forget how my minutes/texting plan looked like but it was ideal, only 30 Euros per month prepaid, and I was able to pickup service and call all throughout Europe.
Will be contacting with friends and traveling family in europe, and with friends and family back in the states. Last time I went I unlocked my old blackberry and went with a prepaid sim, but I don't feel like it really saved me much money. If people call and text my gvoice number while I'm in Europe, is that free? Do I just have to worry about the local stuff then?
It's two of us that are going so really trying to save where I can.
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my cousin went to portugal last summer and used handcent sms to text all of us back in the states for free, and used his gvoice account to make calls also for free
mjwhirly said:
my cousin went to portugal last summer and used handcent sms to text all of us back in the states for free, and used his gvoice account to make calls also for free
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Handcent needs data I'm sure which costs a lot more. As for calling AT&T wants 99c a minute. Calling put with Google voice still uses minutes I'm almost certain. So how does that work.
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Giffgaff
I'd recommend going with Giffgaff:
h**p://giffgaff.com/goodybags/10pound-facebook-goodybag
For 10 pounds/month you get 250 minutes, unlimited texting, and unlimited data. The APN settings are easily found on their website. All prepaid, no contracts. Runs on the O2 network, which is considered [from what I've read] the best in the UK.
Then I would download WhatsApp! from the market and have all your friends do the same. You give them your new Giffgaff number, and you can message all your friends back home for free using the data connection. You could also use google voice for this purpose.
I wish we had options like this in the US. I had an equally inexpensive provider in Germany. Worked great!
Best plan, "borrow" someone else's phone
Sent from Down The Rabbit Hole, using Tapatalk 2.
That looks epic! Will have to unlock my phone first though. Hope they are legitimate I have no idea how they afford those rates.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium
I'm sure they're legit.
If you're worried, Tesco (the grocery store chain) also offers a cheap prepaid SIM with roughly the same benefits, for the same price.
Both services use the O2 network, and I know a couple different people that use Tesco, and say it works great.
h**p://shop.tescomobile.com/sim-only
In all honesty, from having used many prepaid providers in many european countries, once you find a provider that works, you're pretty much just shopping around for who has the best refill options. Giffgaff looks like you can top up with a credit card. Tesco might require you to go buy a top-up card at the store. I'm not entirely sure.
I use Google Voice on a daily basis for working, getting all my phone calls forwarded, keeping voice & missed records, etc. SO I decided if I ever want to change service one day from AT&T to someone else which I have in the past I would port my number over to Google Voice. So I called AT&T to talk & find what fees I would incur. I spoke with a voice rep and a tech rep. Both said I could not port my phone number in anyway to another carrier without incurring a ETF of $305. I said I dont want to kill my service with AT&T but they said "I could not have the best of both worlds". Now I was really nice to let them know what I would like to do by keeping there service and porting my number.
Anyone got any ideas of whom I can speak with besides adding another line and not incurring a ETF?
You cannot port to another carrier while under contract without incurring the ETF. If your contract expires, without you making any changes that would renew it (changing your plan, for one, I think some carriers even re-up if you get a new phone) and you're on month-to-month, then you're free to port without any termination fees.
That's how I did it when I came from Verizon and Quest (home phone, no contract anyway) to AT&T.
mikerowes69 said:
I use Google Voice on a daily basis for working, getting all my phone calls forwarded, keeping voice & missed records, etc. SO I decided if I ever want to change service one day from AT&T to someone else which I have in the past I would port my number over to Google Voice. So I called AT&T to talk & find what fees I would incur. I spoke with a voice rep and a tech rep. Both said I could not port my phone number in anyway to another carrier without incurring a ETF of $305. I said I dont want to kill my service with AT&T but they said "I could not have the best of both worlds". Now I was really nice to let them know what I would like to do by keeping there service and porting my number.
Anyone got any ideas of whom I can speak with besides adding another line and not incurring a ETF?
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When I left Sprint, I forgot that none of the other carriers had Google Voice integration, and ported my number over to AT&T instead of Google Voice. Huge mistake. Unfortunately, I can tell you that I tried every angle I could think of to get AT&T to let me port my number out while maintaining my contract and there is just no way that they can do it. If you port your number out, you will incur the ETF. I must have spoken to every level of billing and technical service they have; all very nice, and though few understood what I wanted to do or what Google Voice is they all really did try in earnest to find a good solution for me, and sadly they all came to the same conclusion.
I've just kind of settled for waiting until my contract is up and then porting my number out. My fear at that point will be that I will have to sign a new contract to get another number from them, which will suck.
MaxCarnage said:
When I left Sprint, I forgot that none of the other carriers had Google Voice integration, and ported my number over to AT&T instead of Google Voice. Huge mistake. Unfortunately, I can tell you that I tried every angle I could think of to get AT&T to let me port my number out while maintaining my contract and there is just no way that they can do it. If you port your number out, you will incur the ETF. I must have spoken to every level of billing and technical service they have; all very nice, and though few understood what I wanted to do or what Google Voice is they all really did try in earnest to find a good solution for me, and sadly they all came to the same conclusion.
I've just kind of settled for waiting until my contract is up and then porting my number out. My fear at that point will be that I will have to sign a new contract to get another number from them, which will suck.
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My notion is now I believe that whomever is with Verizon or AT&T will incur shortly NEW higher fees based off the new plans they are going to implement. I do not have multiple devices or use alot of data so their new plans will not work for me. Straight Talk or some other low cost carrier might. However I just signed up in March so I am not looking to change my plans yet or until the economy starts to get worse. Either way I am stuck till my contract runs out or pay the $305. http://www.yahoo.com/_ylt=AqlTQl9rp7Z2.oyZbfF69wybvZx4;_ylu=X3oDMTRtY2hwdWkyBGEDTmV3IEZyb250IE9wZW5zIGluIFdpcmVsZXNzIEJhdHRsZQRjY29kZQNwemJ1YWxsY2FoNQRjcG9zAzgEZwNpZC0yMzY3NjQ4BGludGwDdXMEbWNvZGUDcHpidWFsbGNhaDUEbXBvcwMwBHBrZ3QDMgRwb3MDMQRzZWMDdGQtZmluBHNsawN0aXRsZQR0ZXN0AzUyNg--/SIG=132qrou5f/EXP=1339683498/**http://finance.yahoo.com/news/front-opens-wireless-battle-040100608.html?l=1
mikerowes69 said:
My notion is now I believe that whomever is with Verizon or AT&T will incur shortly NEW higher fees based off the new plans they are going to implement. I do not have multiple devices or use alot of data so their new plans will not work for me. Straight Talk or some other low cost carrier might. However I just signed up in March so I am not looking to change my plans yet or until the economy starts to get worse. Either way I am stuck till my contract runs out or pay the $305. http://www.yahoo.com/_ylt=AqlTQl9rp7Z2.oyZbfF69wybvZx4;_ylu=X3oDMTRtY2hwdWkyBGEDTmV3IEZyb250IE9wZW5zIGluIFdpcmVsZXNzIEJhdHRsZQRjY29kZQNwemJ1YWxsY2FoNQRjcG9zAzgEZwNpZC0yMzY3NjQ4BGludGwDdXMEbWNvZGUDcHpidWFsbGNhaDUEbXBvcwMwBHBrZ3QDMgRwb3MDMQRzZWMDdGQtZmluBHNsawN0aXRsZQR0ZXN0AzUyNg--/SIG=132qrou5f/EXP=1339683498/**http://finance.yahoo.com/news/front-opens-wireless-battle-040100608.html?l=1
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If your plan costs change you can always try to get out your contract. We'll have to wait and see what the future holds.
Interesting. It looks like a number port in or out kills the line and starts a new one as I experienced when I ported my google voice number to ATT. I was in contract and remained in contract without an ETF, but billing showed it as a line termination and a new line start with the remaining months
I suspect the system isn't set to allow it by design. Maybe if you go high enough you can find someone in corporate who can waive/credit the ETF?
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Please use the Q&A forum. Moved to Q&A
Cheers
So, my service provider (Telus) now charges .40 for any text message sent from Canada to the US. Grr..
Is there an app that can provide me an alternative to paying this outrageous fee?
finnmacool said:
So, my service provider (Telus) now charges .40 for any text message sent from Canada to the US. Grr..
Is there an app that can provide me an alternative to paying this outrageous fee?
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Specifically a texting app? I would recommend Google Voice since it's free to text the US and Canada, however you have to be based in the US to use it. If you don't mind messenger-type apps, there's Whatsapp and also Facebook Messenger. I personally prefer and use Whatsapp. It's free for a year, and 99 cents a year afterwards. It doesn't use usernames; it authenticates with your phone number and you contact people via phone number (contacts).
After 11 years with T-mobile I found a huge flaw in their service. But every carrier has this flaw.
I noticed a $20 usage charge on my bill this month. I called to find out what it was, since it's not in my usage records online.
T-mobile informed me it's the policy of the entire wireless industry not to disclose EVEN to the customer who they called over the phone. The are not permitted to tell me which country nor what continent I called. I have no idea what this call was or where/who it was too and the site and customer service can't or won't tell me.
After 10 seconds of digging I found the gargantuan fees T-mobile charges for int'l call. (After all their commercials lately about international roaming and data, they still have this part of pillaging in effect. http://www.t-mobile.com/Cms/Files/Published/0000BDF20016F5DD010312E2BDE4AE9B/5657114502E70FF301380BCCA3EB86A4/file/StandardIntlRatesByCountry.pdf
For instance $1.99 to the Philippines/UK/France/Italy, $.49 to Canada, and those are the cheapest places!
Something to be aware of next time you decide to place an int'l call.. just use an app.
Bugattixda said:
After 11 years with T-mobile I found a huge flaw in their service. But every carrier has this flaw.
I noticed a $20 usage charge on my bill this month. I called to find out what it was, since it's not in my usage records online.
T-mobile informed me it's the policy of the entire wireless industry not to disclose EVEN to the customer who they called over the phone. The are not permitted to tell me which country nor what continent I called. I have no idea what this call was or where/who it was too and the site and customer service can't or won't tell me.
After 10 seconds of digging I found the gargantuan fees T-mobile charges for int'l call. (After all their commercials lately about international roaming and data, they still have this part of pillaging in effect. http://www.t-mobile.com/Cms/Files/Published/0000BDF20016F5DD010312E2BDE4AE9B/5657114502E70FF301380BCCA3EB86A4/file/StandardIntlRatesByCountry.pdf
For instance $1.99 to the Philippines/UK/France/Italy, $.49 to Canada, and those are the cheapest places!
Something to be aware of next time you decide to place an int'l call.. just use an app.
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Click to collapse
You mean to tell me you weren't aware that wireless providers charge large fees for international anything? Seriously?
The moment my phone thinks it's getting near another country, it's airplane mode ON!
Be happy you did not get charged these rates!!!
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