My cell phone contract is up in October and I am pondering the possibility of going with a strictly data plan. My cell phone bill for my wife and I is $170/month it's by far the biggest monthly bill i have besides mortgage and a car payment. I loathe the fact that AT&T is getting this much money from me every month when I pay time warner 20% as much for what is essentially an equivalent product.

Anybody done this? Have any tips or suggestions? Or should I go ahead and abandon this fantasy?

5/7/2012 6:53:34 PM

i didn't realize you could go data only

how will you make calls?

5/7/2012 7:03:46 PM

Google Voice app?

5/7/2012 7:05:31 PM

gonna drop links in here as i come across them in my research

http://www.pcworld.com/article/243518/going_voiponly_do_you_still_need_cellular_voice_service.html

5/7/2012 7:24:12 PM

Damnit, I wish i could subscribe to threads! I guess will have to do...

5/7/2012 7:34:10 PM

This is very relevant to my interests. I'm considering getting an Android mp3 player like the Samsung Galaxy Player and using it as a wifi-only cellphone to avoid monthly bills altogether. I don't have a smartphone now and don't make calls enough where wifi isn't available to justify the expense. I figure some combination of Google Voice, Skype, etc can pull it off pretty well, but since I don't currently have any android devices, I haven't had the time to research the idea as well as I'd like before making a purchase.

Please do let me know what you find and figure out!

5/7/2012 7:49:57 PM

why not just go straight talk for 45 a month?

unlimited everything?

5/7/2012 8:53:01 PM

I sort of did this last year with a LG Optimus V. Virgin mobile $25 dollar/month plan with 300 mins and unlimited everything else combined wifi calling when i was too broke. When my month or minutes would run out i would sipdroid + google voice for voip for a week or two. If I needed to go somewhere without wifi (which wasnt that often) I would renew my plan for another month.

I never did figure out how to configure calls to ring through to my phone (though the forums seemed to be getting it to work) so I just told everyone to text my google voice number if they needed me.

5/7/2012 9:09:38 PM

Best options for that now are the prepaid deals through Walmart.

StraightTalk (45$/mo)
T-Mobile Monthly 4G (50$/mo unlimited evertyhing, $30/mo unlimited data -100min voice)

Next in the list is Boost Mobile for $55/mo prepaid. (Unlimited everything)

But your best bet is to wait for RepublicWireless to go public this summer. I'm waiting to get my Beta wave invite now (hopefully this week!)

5/7/2012 9:34:48 PM

http://www.republicwireless.com/ - unlimited everything cheap, automatically roams to wifi
and virgin mobile

[Edited on May 7, 2012 at 9:42 PM. Reason : bandwidth.com is based in cary and MOODY used to work there]

5/7/2012 9:42:09 PM

^One post too late, but they aren't really open for business yet.

5/8/2012 4:00:34 AM

so straight talk was a flop. i passed on republic wireless b/c of the limited phone selection. re-activating my at&t account for now, still hopeful to find a cheaper alternative

11/15/2012 11:21:25 PM

^Why was straight talk a flop?

11/15/2012 11:27:53 PM

they ported my number from at&t this morning. then i went to port my wife's like an hour later and they come back with the following email

Quote :

" Thank you for choosing Straighttalk Wireless as your servie provider. The reason of this e-mail is to let you know that we are unable to port your phone number, the reason is because we cannot transfer a phone number between states therefore we must assing you a new phone number or you may provide us with your current zip code so we can provide our service."

ignoring the spelling errors, it's a ridiculous excuse b/c my number that successfully got ported was the exact same out of state area code vs zip code combination and had no problems. i called support and they couldn't do any more than read a script. i called at&t number porting dept and they told me there was no reason why the number couldn't be ported. they even got a straight talk rep on the line to assist, but as soon as the at&t rep disconnected, they went back to the out of state excuse.

[Edited on November 15, 2012 at 11:39 PM. Reason : i could have ported to GV and got a new # from ST, but the cust support did not bode well so F em]

11/15/2012 11:34:10 PM

^do it again from the website.

When it asks you to enter your zip code where you'll be using the phone, enter the zip code that corresponds to the area code.

I can help you through this, I've had to deal with similar shit with AT&T before, it's not really straight talk's fault, it's AT&T's archaic routing rules.

11/15/2012 11:58:07 PM

so my phone is a SC area code and i live in NJ now, right. when i suggested to one of the reps that i could just give her a SC zip code instead of my actual NJ zip code, she implied that my phone wouldn't connect to towers in NJ b/c of that. i questioned that b/c it's supposed to be a national plan, but the rep couldn't give me a straight answer, she just kept saying something about the towers not connecting. i guess i'll give it a shot through the website again

[Edited on November 16, 2012 at 12:05 AM. Reason : ...]

11/16/2012 12:04:35 AM

^its because straight talk is a MVNO for AT&T. All that shit they tell you are the regional routing rules that AT&T tries to enforce to save themselves money.

The "rule" is that you cannot have two numbers on the same account from two different originating market regions. But you have two options to get around this on straight talk. a) Lie about your "home" region with a faked zip code, or b) put each number on it's own billing account. Either will work.

11/16/2012 12:10:54 AM