someguy20

The problem is simple. I pay Verizon $60 for voice. I don't care about voice, I don't want 700 minutes, what do I need them for? But I have to pay $60 in order to have the privilege of paying an extra $30 for data, the thing I really want. So the solution I envision is to ditch that BS, and get a $50/mo 5 GB 4G data card (USB or wifi hotspot, doesn't matter). Pop open the SIM and slip it into an unlocked android phone that is compatible with 4G. Download Google Voice for my few phone calls, and the deal is done. I turn a $90/mo contract into $50/mo. Only problem is finding a phone out there that will be able to do this.

Does anyone know if a phone like this exists? I may be a bit ahead of the curve as 4G coverage is still in it's infancy, but still, android users aren't the type to be behind the curve, right?

valorian

What type of 4G data card are you referring too? The ones that go into a laptop? You might be trying to over simplify this.

First, Verizon does not like unlocked phones activated on their system. Second, I don't think you will be able to find a 4G phone (even if it is unlocked) that will work on Verizon's network. To use a phone on Verizon's network requires activation, Activation requires a phone package.

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someguy20

I was hoping that with the new SIM cards used for Verizon's 4G network would work like other SIM cards, where as long as the device it was plugged into was compatible with the SIM, it would talk to the network as if everything was legit. A friend of mine had an unlocked iPhone and a prepaid SIM card. He couldn't get data, but the prepaid card didn't care what phone it was in, the voice and text network was open to him. My idea is doing the opposite of him. The voice and text network would be broken, but the data network would, potentially, be working if the 4g SIM worked in the unlocked phone. The thing to do would be to "trick" Verizon into thinking that the data coming through the phone was just the same as data coming through a laptop.

A.Nonymous

I don't think you can do Google Voice purely over data anyway.

james515

the wifi hot spot required a phone to connect to the 4g network so it can provide wifi to the devices, so that's not an option for you.
the 4d data card is a USB device and those use some sort of connection manager run from your laptop to gain access to the 4g network.

Im not sure how it could be done to get your phone to recognize your laptop as a wifi access point so you could make a Voip call

James

someguy20

That's true about the USB mobile broadband conections. I've used one from Sprint before from my office. But that program could just be for the benefit of the PC to understand whats plugged into it. Sort of like a driver issue, to get it to connect. I could be wrong though. The wifi mobile boradband devices do not require phones. They just take 3/4G signal and transmit standard 802.11 g wireless to anything near by. Any device that can connect to wifi will connect to that. I wish I knew someone who had either an AT&T/T-mobile mobile broadband SIM, or a Verizon 4G so I could experiment, because I think the theory is sound, even if some genius over at XDA may have to do some tweaking to make it happen.