Looking into a T-Mobile cell phone deal that has unlimited data (voice minutes are capped at 100) but only the first 5GB is 4g. After that it drops to 3g. My recollection is that voip is estimated at half a meg a minute or so (though there are a lot of variables) so I'm probably all right but what I don't know is, would 3g throughput be adequate? Using Skype right now and would be turning off video. Most of my Skype calls are to land lines and cell phones anyway. In a somewhat related question, I've been using speedtest.net and I'm wondering if all those IP test sites are about the same of if there is one or more that would give a more accurate number.
I run the one at speakeasy. You will need a phone that does flash.
I think you are going for the $30 plan. There are some nuances with that plan and they have recently changed. Rather than me give you old data, you will want to check if it can be used for tethering. Also, you want to make sure the cheap plan has data roaming if you go to the boonies. I can tell you from experience that none of the T-mobile plans allow tethered roaming any more. I've had to sftp off my phone using a sdhc card to go from notebook to phone when I found myself in a location without T-mobile as the home system. The other thing to check is if you can hotspot off your phone on that plan.
The HD VOIP codec is about 40kbps. Remember the data plan is in bytes. Figure 40kbps is 5kbytes per second. Probably 6k bytes per second with framing. That would be 360k bytes per minute. I don't know how VOIP handles duplex, but when the dust settles, I think your half a MByte a minute is a safe estimate. I'm assuming the cellular provider charges you for both directions.
I can tell you T-mob LTE is great. T-mob 4G is not so good. It seems to have a lot of latency. LTE is around 30 to 40mbps down and 12 to 16 mbps up. 4G is half that.
Thanks for info. The 4g LTE looks truly impressive. Even the 4g is more than I thought. I'm currently using a clear.com mobile hot spot (4g)for all my internet and the best I'm seeing is about 14 down and under 2 up. For the most part it's working out all right. Skype works well if it's audio only. Which is why I was wondering about how Skype would work at 3g. Just tried speakeasy and got 4 and a half down. As I said it varies quite a bit. I'll call t-mobile but when I checked in at a storefront they said it was a web offer only. It is the $30 a month plan and they had one at the store but it was different - had a data cap. They also said both web and store plans didn't allow tethering. I'm mostly in nyc so I think coverage should be good. Even my rare trips are to large cities.
I'm actually thinking of splurging on an iPhone. T-mobile said the plan'd work with that but I've still got to call up and ask some more questions. If unused minutes roll over that'd be good, but I have my doubts that'll be part of the deal. I actually don't anticipate using the voice minutes too much which is why I think it might be the right plan for me. Mostly it'd be the rare phone call and some apps, mail and light reading. Like the iPad that I just started using, I'd mostly use it in airplane mode and turn on the wi-fi. If Skype audio would work ok in 3g that'd be a big plus. I'm guessing simple e-mail at 3g would be ok as well. The problem I have with Skype on the iPod I carry around (and had hopes for using with Skype [combined with the clear.com mobile hot spot] instead of getting a cell phone) is it takes too long to unlock and fire up Skype for an incoming call. Sort of hoping the thumbprint lock on the 5s will speed that up.
I think the $30 plan goes to 2G or Edge at 5GB. Never having hit it, I'm not sure but I seem to recall seeing that on Howards Forums. 5GB is a lot of data unless you are streaming A/V stuff.
The speedtest.net results depend on site you are connecting to. They are all accurate for each site.
None of the prepaids allow roaming. When you do have a data connection you can use a non-T-Mobile app to tether without additional cost.
The trick with the $30 plan is to find it on the website. But I think Wal-Mart sells the same plan.
With Tmob, 4g and LTE are different. Their 4G is some high speed UMTS, but it sucks. The LTE is totally kick ass, but I can tell you it sucks in Vegas for some reason. No latency, but the bandwidth is exactly half of what I get in northern and southern Ca.
The iphone on Tmob has yet another nuance. There is some tweak to get it to work on Tmob 4G. The version you get in the Apple store is different. I don't recall the details since I don't have an iphone. The iphone reception is shit, especially on wifi. I would wait another generation of iphone. I think eventually they will make a nice polycarbonate phone like the rest of the industry. What they should have done is make the plastic iphone 5 not be in such fugly colors. I bet as a phone it is better than the metal case iphone.
VOIP need a steady non-jittery stream. There is one website to test jitter, but it requires a level of flash that I can't run it on my phone. People with cable modems soon discover that VOIP is better on DSL. It is not a matte of bandwidth but rather a matter of jitter.
I wouldn't put it past the phone companies to make their data jittery enough to screw up voice.
Put "tether" in the Play Store and there are a bunch, for both wifi and usb tethering. I have had good results with FoxFi and 1-Click WiFi Tether. If you phone is rooted (mine is not) there are even more choices. Avoiding the T-Mobile tethering surcharge is not difficult.
Along the same lines, avoid having wifi calling use your limited minutes on the $30 plan by using GrooveIP or Talkatone to do it for free through VOIP. When there is no wif around they will also call through your data allowance, so 100 minutes is less of a restriction.
Depending on the phone, there are also simple hacks you can do if you can get the phone into "engineering" mode.
But I think Tmob doesn't care about tethering on the cheap account any more, just no hotspot. [As if there is a difference to them.] But that is where you need to go for the latest data. The Howard forum people tend to be the sharpest.
The irony here is talk is cheap. The phone companies really don't make any money off of voice, but rather off of data. So what is up with the
100 minute limit other than it is set at a point too small for most people? It is designed to be just not enough unless you do these voip games.
BTW, most of the smartphones have a sip client. If you only talk to geeks, you can just sip for free. The one on the most platforms is
You don't get a phone number, but rather an address on their directory. I got it to go HD voice on Tmob data. The software is free because they want to sell you the time to the public switched network. There are companies that will put you in their VOIP directory just in the hopes of getting you to buy a PSN plan.
for example, though there are others.
If I had sip at home, I'd probably go for that T-mobile plan. I'm probably going to drop my subsidized plan when it expires and go for their basic $50 plan.
You should be researching MVNOs while you are at this. No MVNO will give you LTE at the moment, but you can get 4G. One of those MVNOs can use AT&T and Tmob. It has been a while since I researched this so I don't want to lead you astray as to the vendor.
The problem with these voip plans is incoming calls. You need some sort of app running constantly to detect the incoming call since it is not native to the phone. So reaching people is no big deal. Having people reach you can be a problem, so it depends on your tolerance for that situation. A good example is/was that google voice, which went down a lot. Of course, you always have your real carrier provided phone number that should be reachable. [Note how many people provide a VOIP and real number, just to be sure they don't miss calls.]
On Fri, 08 Nov 2013 23:03:02 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@nada.com, responding to my
Ah, thanks for spelling that out :-) .
Why should it even be possible for wifi calling to use minutes? I can do wifi calling even with no SIM in the handset, so how can T-Mo possible be aware of my wifi calling activity under any circumstances?
Good point, and nice benefit. Thanks. Cheers, -- tlvp
T-mob wifi calling connects to the PSN. It isn't like you are calling IP address to IP address. You should not be able to do what T-mob calls wifi calls without a simcard. Hell, without a simcard you don't have a phone number as far as T-mob is concerned.
Talkatone is just Google voice. It is free, so you are the product. Same goes for GrooveIP. You are the product.
Ultimately if you connect to the PSN, somebody is paying the freight. There is no free lunch. You are the product.
The intent for Tmob UMA or wifi calling was to make phone calls where there is no service, not to make free calls. You need to realize the vast majority of people don't give a shit about voice minutes. I can't possibly use all my minutes, but it doesn't pay to change plans. However there is a rumor that T-mob is really going to kill grandfathered contracts like mine. [I've been with them 8 years.]
If you use the T-Mobile wifi calling they deduct the minutes from the
100. I assume that thier wifi calling doesn't work without a SIM. With other VOIP apps, you can do wifi calling (using Google Voice connections) with no sim in the phone. I sometimes even do it from my tablet using Talkatone.
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