Prepaid question

[Donna Becker]

I have an old rarely used T-Mo prepaid phone and want to transfer the prepaid sim to a better phone.  I have been paying $10 a year for like the last 7 years so I won’t lose my accumulated prepaid minutes.   I’m a bit confused as to if I have to buy a prepaid phone or can buy any t-mo phone.  The prepaid plan I have just deducts 10 cents a text but not sure how much it is costing me per minute for a call.  Would realy appreciate suggestions on what phone you would recommend and I’ll see if I can find one on Craig’s List or eBay.  Thanks!  DonnaB

[Joseph Singer]

On Sep 21, 2013, at 18:12, Donna Becker wrote:

> I have an old rarely used T-Mo prepaid phone and want to transfer the prepaid sim to a better phone. I have been paying $10 a year for like the last 7 years so I won’t lose my accumulated prepaid minutes. I’m a bit confused as to if I have to buy a prepaid phone or can buy any t-mo phone. The prepaid plan I have just deducts 10 cents a text but not sure how much it is costing me per minute for a call. Would realy appreciate suggestions on what phone you would recommend and I’ll see if I can find one on Craig’s List or eBay. Thanks! DonnaB

All you need is a compatible (unlocked) phone that will work with the frequencies T-Mobile uses on their network (1900/1700/850/1700) but mainly 1900. You don't need to specifically get either a T-Mobile phone (like from Rite-Aid, Walgreens or wherever) or a used T-Mobile phone. With that said I'm noticing now here in Seattle there are times of day where my standard 2G GSM phone will not allow me to make calls i.e. the calls fail and you have to try the call three or four times before calls will go through. So, if you can find a phone that uses both 2G GSM and 3G HSPA (or even LTE) you should get one. My situation may be unique to Seattle (but I'm betting with T-Mobile's "re-farming" frequencies from 2G to 3G/4G eventually 2G GSM will be replaced just like analog and TDMA (also a second generation technology) was made to sunset.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Joseph Singer, Seattle, Washington USA
mailto:jos...@jsinger.org
http://babble.ly/TV70 [mobile] +1 503 961 0349 [Télécopieur] ©MCMXLIX

[Donna Becker]

-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph Singer
Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2013 9:10 PM
To: t-mob...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: {T-Mobile-US} Prepaid question


On Sep 21, 2013, at 18:12, Donna Becker wrote:

> I have an old rarely used T-Mo prepaid phone and want to transfer the
> prepaid sim to a better phone. I have been paying $10 a year for like the

> last 7 years so I won�t lose my accumulated prepaid minutes. I�m a bit

> confused as to if I have to buy a prepaid phone or can buy any t-mo phone.
> The prepaid plan I have just deducts 10 cents a text but not sure how much
> it is costing me per minute for a call. Would realy appreciate

> suggestions on what phone you would recommend and I�ll see if I can find
> one on Craig�s List or eBay. Thanks! DonnaB

All you need is a compatible (unlocked) phone that will work with the
frequencies T-Mobile uses on their network (1900/1700/850/1700) but mainly
1900. You don't need to specifically get either a T-Mobile phone (like from
Rite-Aid, Walgreens or wherever) or a used T-Mobile phone. With that said
I'm noticing now here in Seattle there are times of day where my standard 2G
GSM phone will not allow me to make calls i.e. the calls fail and you have
to try the call three or four times before calls will go through. So, if
you can find a phone that uses both 2G GSM and 3G HSPA (or even LTE) you
should get one. My situation may be unique to Seattle (but I'm betting with
T-Mobile's "re-farming" frequencies from 2G to 3G/4G eventually 2G GSM will
be replaced just like analog and TDMA (also a second generation technology)
was made to sunset.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ok I kind of knew I could get an unlocked phone as I saw them on eBay saying
they would work on AT&T or T-Mo but wasn't sure about the prepaid
restrictions - mainly could I get an unlocked smart phone that has wifi to
use with my prepaid sim? That is kind of what I don't understand about the
prepaid sim if it would work in an unlocked smart phone or if I have to get
a non-smartphone. That would be cool to use the wifi and text with pinger
or whatever without having to pay for a data plan or a phone plan for that
matter. DonnaB

[Joseph Singer]

On Sep 21, 2013, at 19:30, Donna Becker wrote:

> Ok I kind of knew I could get an unlocked phone as I saw them on eBay saying they would work on AT&T or T-Mo but wasn't sure about the prepaid restrictions - mainly could I get an unlocked smart phone that has wifi to use with my prepaid sim? That is kind of what I don't understand about the prepaid sim if it would work in an unlocked smart phone or if I have to get a non-smartphone. That would be cool to use the wifi and text with pinger or whatever without having to pay for a data plan or a phone plan for that matter. DonnaB

On prepaid it doesn't matter. If you insert a SIM into a postpaid phone T-Mobile will automatically put you on a data plan but not prepaid.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[John M Catral]

My wife uses this scenario on her Nexus 4.  She just uses the prepaid capabilities for voices but does not have T-Mobile Data since she stays mostly at home.  She uses the wifi on the Nexus 4 to check Google+ and facebook. :)

On Sat, Sep 21, 2013 at 10:30 PM, Donna Becker <donnab...@gmail.com> wrote:

-----Original Message----- From: Joseph Singer
Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2013 9:10 PM
To: t-mob...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: {T-Mobile-US} Prepaid question


On Sep 21, 2013, at 18:12, Donna Becker wrote:

I have an old rarely used T-Mo prepaid phone and want to transfer the prepaid sim to a better phone.  I have been paying $10 a year for like the last 7 years so I won’t lose my accumulated prepaid minutes.   I’m a bit confused as to if I have to buy a prepaid phone or can buy any t-mo phone. The prepaid plan I have just deducts 10 cents a text but not sure how much it is costing me per minute for a call.  Would realy appreciate suggestions on what phone you would recommend and I’ll see if I can find one on Craig’s List or eBay.  Thanks!  DonnaB

All you need is a compatible (unlocked) phone that will work with the frequencies T-Mobile uses on their network (1900/1700/850/1700) but mainly 1900.  You don't need to specifically get either a T-Mobile phone (like from Rite-Aid, Walgreens or wherever) or a used T-Mobile phone.    With that said I'm noticing now here in Seattle there are times of day where my standard 2G GSM phone will not allow me to make calls i.e. the calls fail and you have to try the call three or four times before calls will go through.  So, if you can find a phone that uses both 2G GSM and 3G HSPA (or even LTE) you should get one.  My situation may be unique to Seattle (but I'm betting with T-Mobile's "re-farming" frequencies from 2G to 3G/4G eventually 2G GSM will be replaced just like analog and TDMA (also a second generation technology) was made to sunset.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Ok I kind of knew I could get an unlocked phone as I saw them on eBay saying they would work on AT&T or T-Mo but wasn't sure about the prepaid restrictions - mainly could I get an unlocked smart phone that has wifi to use with my prepaid sim?  That is kind of what I don't  understand about the prepaid sim if it would work in an unlocked smart phone or if I have to get a non-smartphone.  That would be cool to use the wifi and text with pinger or whatever without having to pay for a data plan or a phone plan for that matter.  DonnaB

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "T-Mobile-US" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to t-mobile-us+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to t-mob...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/t-mobile-us.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

[Donna Becker]

Excellent. So if I get a nexus 4for I can put my T-Mobile prepaid Sim in and have Wi-Fi and T-Mobile won't automatically assigned me to a data plan?

Sent from my iPhone

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to t-mobile-us...@googlegroups.com.

[John M Catral]

Yup!

Not sure if the Nexus4 is still at the Google Play store but get it there if they still have it.   It's only $200 for the 8gb.  :-)