[Q] Is there a way to ditch my provider completely? - Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I want to get rid of AT&T, but keep my captivate for wifi phone use if possible. I really need to get phone service through my wifi because reception where I live on any network is horrible. I know I could just get vonage, but if there is a "free" alternative, like google voice, id like some info. If you want to PM me that's cool. If I absolutely must keep a number active for google voice ill just switch to a cheaper carrier. I hear t-mobile will let people open data only service that links a phone number, and I know I can unlock the phone and use it on tmobile. Anyway if anyone has any input for keeping the phone but ditching carriers altogether please let me know.
...I will try to turn off my service and try google voice, linking it to my wife's phone number, and see if I can get it to work when I get home from Christmas shopping later...

Yup.. pay the million dollar fee to disconnect from AT&T before your contract is up - ***edit go to another carrier and they will unlock the phone to work on their carrier. You would need to request the unlock code from AT&T (I don't know if they would do it or if its really even needed.) then go to the other carrier.
And... depending on how long you've been on your contract I "think" its a minimum of $175.00 - but you will need to talk to your AT&T rep.
At least it isn't Verizon - with a crazy $600.00 early termination fee that my job had to pay for 3 phones!!

Other carriers don't unlock phones.
OP all carriers offer microcells that you put in your house to get cell service. Att has one. Google voice requires an existig number to forward calls to; your phone needs a number. If you only have wifi then why bother with a cell phone? If you can't get good cell then a data only plan wont help either.
Sent from my MB520 using XDA App

Thanks. I sort of just needed to know if it was possible to have google voice with any number or if it had to be the cell I was using google voice on. I know I can pay to get out of contract. I also knew I could carrier unlock my phone. Thank you.

Hi, I still consider myself a noobie when it comes to Android, but i do have experience with other platforms, and (if i understand you correctly) CAN be accomplished. I have personally done this on an iphone,WinMo,and sort of on a Blackberry.
1.Wi-fi calling : By using Skype In/Out you can have a number that rings in and you call out. It will cost around $60.00 annually.
2. 3G calling requires a carrier for data and some hacking but it can be done.
P.M. Me if you need some help.

Google voice can be used with a cell or land line phone number. Haven't tried to use it strictly WiFi so I can't offer much there, but it does work with any existing number you have.

Google is offering free calls through 2011 through your browser. Not sure if this helps much, but...
http://googlevoice.com/showthread.php?139-Free-Calling-in-Gmail-through-all-of-2011
I would think you can do this through a mobile browser as well provided you can get WiFi access

Related

G1 in Hand (Ask Away)General Questions

Does anyone know if the text messaging will be threaded similar to wm 6.1?
gottifour said:
Does anyone know if the text messaging will be threaded similar to wm 6.1?
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Click to collapse
it will be similar but yet not similar....................it will be threaded but it wont be all pretty; but yes threaded there is a video that shows this i dont recall which one due to the fact that there are like 30 videos on youtube......but its there somewhere
Thanks for the reply...I really got used to the 6.1 version. I hope somebody way smarter than me develops a nice program similar to what we have been using.
with this being so open...the sky is the limit on what can be done...look at what people have done with WM on here. These guys will be computing their fingers off making new apps...i am sure that we will not have to use the android market..im sure that people will make apps-> download to computer->use computer to put on our SD-> install to phone...
I like the threaded SMS - It's very smooth for me, kind of like a prettier IRC.
I give it 2 weeks max till it comes out if it isn't already on g1, threaded text is my favorite feature from 6.1.
stats555 said:
I give it 2 weeks max till it comes out if it isn't already on g1, threaded text is my favorite feature from 6.1.
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Click to collapse
It's there, and is mentioned a few times in the user guide:
G1 User Guide-Page 57 said:
Select a message thread in the list to open it for reading. When open, the individual messages appear stacked on the screen, much like with instant messaging conversations (or chats). Note that messages you send are also listed in the Read view.
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​
benjimen said:
It's there, and is mentioned a few times in the user guide:
​
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Click to collapse
cool..thanks for the reply
questions using the g1 without 25$ plan
-if i buy a g1 in ebay and i dont want to pay the 25$ add. plan, i can use this phone with my tmobil plan?? only have to change the sim card?
-for request a phone now i have to select 35$ or 25$ addicional plan. when i have the phone i can cancel this 25$ or 35$ plan?
now i am using excalibur with 4.99 internet plan.
thanks
Negative. The data plan is required. It will be added to your account when you get the phone. It's tied to the G1.
beartard said:
Negative. The data plan is required. It will be added to your account when you get the phone. It's tied to the G1.
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Click to collapse
Tmo said the same thing with the sidekicks. But after a while you were able to remove sidekick plan.
It may very well be. But the fact is that the data plan is part of buying the phone. If you make changes to the plan within the term of your new, two-year contract, you risk that early-termination fee deal.
For those who didn't re-up a contract for the phone, nobody knows just yet how it will work if you cancel the data plan.
This is like if you go to the AT&T wireless forums, 5000 questions a day about removing the iPhone plan (can't be done). Are there ways around it? We don't know yet. What we do know is, T-Mobile is making you keep the plan as long as you keep the phone, exactly like iPhone. If you can find a way to use it without the plan but still get unlimited data, do that.
technically, if Tmobile doesnt know you have the Dream, they cant make you purchase a package (unless I am missing something). If you leave your phone listed in the My Tmobile as a Dash, or whatever, the options available for that phone are shown and will not include the dream packages. If you buy the phone elsewhere, they wont know until you tell them.
Of course I have absolutely no idea why you would want a phone like this without data (and without text messaging, since they are likely tied) as it would be so crippled.
well t-mobile would know because i called them a day and they told me every phone i've used including the iphone. They said everytime you make a call from you cell they get info on what phone your using
interesting, because they only knew the last phone they sold me when I called them before. I have never bought a Dash from them, yet they allowed me to add tzones access to my "razr" and use it on the Dash for over a year before I upgraded to the full internet plan.
gospeed.racer said:
interesting, because they only knew the last phone they sold me when I called them before. I have never bought a Dash from them, yet they allowed me to add tzones access to my "razr" and use it on the Dash for over a year before I upgraded to the full internet plan.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same thing with my tilt... in fact I keep telling them that it's the wing and my.t-mobile.com never saves it. I think that if you have a t-mobile phone they can tell but if it's an att or even a CID/SIM unlocked phone (Correct me if I am wrong on the CID/SIM part) they can still see it but it doesn't match any of their phones so they don't know what it is.
wat if i have familt text messaging can i only pay 15 or 20 for data
Vendor and model/serial number are contained in the IMEI.
eg. 00|000000|111111|0
First 2 groups are TAC and stuff, third is UE serial, last is checksum bit.
IMEI and IMSI are sent to the network when the device attatches to a cell.
[edit]
Looked at the spec quickly (just happened to have Rel6 to hand, as you do)
Its in 22.016 if anyone is interested.
Composition of IMEI
The composition of the IMEI shall be such that each individual mobile station equipment can be separately identified.
Information is contained in the IMEI by which the PLMN, after requesting it, can immediately decide whether or not to accept calls made by means of this equipment.
Secondly, the IMEI shall directly or indirectly contain all information which is necessary for the network operator to make relations through its administrative system to trace the equipment to its origin of production. 3GPP TS 23.003 [2] describes the structure of the IMEI in detail
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Click to collapse
T-mobile can see every phone you use
Dabs is correct, every time that you make a call the network sees and logs the IMEI number on the phone. I work for T-mobile and when you pull up an account you can see every device that has ever been used on that account and the dates it was used.
T-mobile has traditionally not cared what kind of phone that you use, if you want to buy an unlocked smart phone and you can get internet access working on t-zones they don't care.
T-mobile knows that you are using a G1, the question is do they care. I can personally vouch for the fact that it will work on a blackberry data plan, I had my sim in one today and had full 3G service (averaging roughly 700kps over 3).
Regarding the sidekicks on t-mobile, the data plan is required (but can be removed) because of the way the sidekick stores data on the sidekick server. Sidekicks store the majority of their data on the server. The phone restores data off of the server after being turned off. If you do not have the sidekick data and remover the battery you lose all of the info, contacts, etc, except what is stored on the sim card.

Free Internet After Service Deactivated?

Hey, I have a of course "hacked" g1. I was living in another state that had T-Mobile service and recently moved to an area completely gray on their service map, and had my service disconnected. My phone can still roam off at&t towers, funny thing is, with service deactivated I can still access the internet, chat on IM programs, check my gmail. Is this a common occurence?
I just find it odd that I can do all of these things without a paid service.
Im on FlexPay and I didnt pay last months bill because I didnt have any money from my job....and still havent paid this month....and well I still have internet access via Edge and 3G.
So at least I know I'm not the only one. Rather interesting to say the least. Anyone know why this might be happening?
I don't know about T-Mobile, but I did a few years with Nextel (pre Sprint). I think the billing systems are similar though (It's provided to the carrier as a package from a software provider). Anyway..
The billing system is completely separate from the systems that your phone actually talks to. Changes are made in the billing system (such as cancellation, suspension of service). A message is sent over to the other systems, and you get a response back - Complete, Pending, Error .. etc. An error would supposedly get flagged for technicians to handle, but not always.. We sometimes would have customers calling in after weeks to find out why something hadn't been added or removed, and it would be because of an old error in the provisioning. Very possible that something similar has happened to you guys. May last months, may go away in 5 more min.. No way to tell.
Wow, that wound up longer than I expected. Sorry.

G1 and T-mobile Question

I think this is the best place for this question.
I have a G1 now and am considering moving over to the Nexus one. My wife and I are on the family plan and we want to keep that going. Currently she only had a basic phone with basic cell service. I have the basic cell service with the Data Plan added to my line. Her contract is up and she can get a new phone, which is good because her Motorola is getting flakey. Anyhow she wants to start doing text messaging with family. So she wants a new phone that has a full keyboard for texting. She doesn't need/want the data plan as it is $30/mo that she won't use. The problem is that all the phones with full keyboards require a data plan. She is a stay at home mom so if she needs the internet she get on a computer. So my thoughts were to get the new Nexus One for me @ $533 for the unsubsidized rate. I take my SIM out of my G1 put it in the N1. Move her sim from her Motorola over to my old G1 then turn on texting on the her line.
She wouldn't be paying for data and I could just set the G1 up to use our Wifi anyhow. Not that it would be used for anything but updating and installing new apps. So it should be fine. I could wipe the phone and set it up on her Gmail account before pulling my sim so I could then configure Wifi.
Does anyone see any flaws in my thinking? I have already put her sim in my G1 as a test and it could make a receive calls on her number. The one thing that I did notice is that it said it had 3G coverage but I didn't try it.
Thanks
Well I was out running around today and stopped into the local T-mobile shop to run these questions across them.
Basically they said that it should be fine. They would only be concerned if I were trying to disable the data plan on my account while still under contract. Since I will be maintaining my data plan for use on the Nexus there are no concern. He said that I may have issues when trying to set up the phone for Her. I mentioned I could wipe the phone and set it up on her Gmail account before moving my SIM. He said that once her SIM is in it may have and issue the first time it powers on. He said that worst case we could come down to the store and turn on the data plan for an hour or so and get it updated then they could turn it off.
He also mentioned that I may have problems accessing the App Market as they were told that it needs the data network to function. However he admitted that he can access the App Market just fine on his old G1 at home over his Wifi and no SIM Card. So he again thought that I would be OK. The only real issue that I can see is that I may not be able to get OTA updates. That shouldn't be a big deal because the phone is rooted and I am running a cooked ROM on it. We plan on leaving it that way and I will be doing updates in that manner.
So it looks like my questions are answered. I am posting the resolution as others may have the same question.

Questions about G1 ... ATT... Blocked Data... Debacle!

So my friend is giving me her old G1 since she got a new phone and it is basically sitting in her glove compartment. She has T-Mobile I have AT&T.
I am on a family plan with no data plan and my parents went so far as to put a data block on all the phones. I read a few sites and I heard from one that once the phone is unlocked it is a one time deal, if this is true this may be good for me.
A) Since my friends phone is obviously unlocked since it was hers and she used it, if I put my ATT sim card in (she's not gonna factory reset), will it work? What would I have to do
Since I dont have a data plan and my parents blocked all data (internet, not messaging) but I have Wifi, can i tell my friend before she mails me her G1 to enable wifi?
B) Since I don't plan on getting wifi anytime soon, this would be good no? Ofcourse if question A is correct that I wouldn't have to unlock it and activate it.
Ba) If question A is fail, could i still activate the phone via my wifi on the gmail account set up?
So those are all the questions I have, I would like to know what I should do when i get the phone in anycase because I would really like to use it, and i plan to use the wifi feature instead of paying for a data plan since my town has a lot of free wifi hotspots!
Let me know!!!
- Joey
you can also reach me at,
AIM: inability2sleep
If the phone is up to date, it should allow you to skip the account sync process (which is one reason data is required). That way it should allow you to get into the phone and activate wifi yourself.
Of course it wouldn't hurt to have you friend do it for you. Convenience and all.
you meant to say "Since I don't plan on getting data anytime soon..." right?
If she doesn't factory reset, you can add multiple accounts on a single G1 through settings. So give that a go too. The main thing is, that before donut, it was mandatory to sync over data service to activate your phone on a fresh G1. So you should be ok.
Hey Innovated,
Shouldn't have any issues doing that. If you pop in the SIM card, the phone will first say Emergency Calls Only. You have to go into Settings, Wireless Controls, Mobile Networks, then Network Operators and select AT&T.
If it pops up with an unlock code screen, then you need to purchase an unlock code. eBay is usually good, around $5.
After that, everything will work. As you don't have a data plan, and have a data block in place, there's no need to enter new APN details.
As for wifi, you can turn it on or off as you want. To turn on and off, click Settings, Wireless Controls, Enable WiFi.
Hope this helps!
-XBrav
Wow thank you so much for both of your fast replies! This will help so much and hopefully it is as easy as you say! I can't wait to have this cool phone!
My friend wants to know if it can still work if she can factory reset it, and add my gmail account to activate it before mailing me the phone... Would that still be the same as what she 'WAS' going to do in my first description?
As far as I know that can work. What the sync does is add your contacts, and allow the phone to sync with your google account. With 1.6 and higher, android allows you to skip the step, but it should be possible if she does it for you.
Worst comes to worse, you factory reset and hit "skip" . So yup. hope that helps.
even if im ATT and she's Tmobile?

Moving from tmo to att. what happens to all my apps?

Hi. As the title says I might be moving from t mobile to att and I will be getting an att nexus one when I do this because 3g speeds are very important to me. I have a bunch of paid apps and I am just wondering what will become of that?
Cant believe someone is switching from tmo to att.
I switched to tmo after 7 years with att. Much better customer service, no nickel and dimeing, lower bill.
tmo has 3g too.
britoso said:
Cant believe someone is switching from tmo to att.
I switched to tmo after 7 years with att. Much better customer service, no nickel and dimeing, lower bill.
tmo has 3g too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its because we're on a family plan and my dad is working in Mississippi right now. T-Mobile has an absolutely horrendous signal there. Can't even get GPRS. Forget 3g. And if he gets a job back here its not hard to simply go back to T-Mobile as we all have unlocked phones. Anyways do you have an answer for the original question?
I think they stay with you...
... because when you get to the new Android device you will activate it with the same google account you used on the last one and your apps will follow.
You might also use AppBrain to grab a list of your apps before you leave Tmo and then sync again with AppBrain once you get to ATT
I dont think it will matter because those are all connected to your gmail account, not your sim card or even phone imei. As long as you haver 2.2 and "back up my settings" selected in settings, it will automatically restore your phone when you activate a new n1.
Hope this helps
Just make sure you sign into the account you bought your apps with on the new device, and it will download your apps automatically.
Well the thing I'm wondering is that, wouldn't my old device have to be disabled somehow? Because if I can just sign into multiple devices then people would be stealing apps left and right.
If you root you can always use titanium backup and swap that way. There's even a cross compatibility mode now as well. Backs up programs AND data (saved games, settings ect....)
ksc6000 said:
Well the thing I'm wondering is that, wouldn't my old device have to be disabled somehow? Because if I can just sign into multiple devices then people would be stealing apps left and right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The point is to factory wipe your old phone so a stranger isn't getting your paid apps for free. Google only ties your paid and free apps apps to your gmail account cause they know nobody would let a stranger keep their paid apps. And they don't care if a legitimate owner keeps 2 active phones on the same account cause that person has it in their interest if they want to do that cause they paid for their apps.
It's the same principle as owning a credit card. If I chose to give my credit card to my son to use, then its my choice and the card company does not care cause its in my interest to do what I want with my card. And if I want to take responsibility for that giving it to someone to use then its no issue in their eyes, the bill still gets paid.
Paid apps are tied to your Google account. How do people not know this?

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