Your experience with $30 5GB plan + VOIP app

[chong67]

I would like to know your user experience with the T-mobile $30 5GB 100 minute plan.

Did you like it? If not, why?

What is your favorite VOIP app to use?

 

[chong67]

Do you all believe VOIP app is mature technology?

I know I am on 4G but sometimes my friend on land line still cant hear me well and there is some sort of fading in and out signal.

 

[eljefe0000]

i use groove ip or talkatone aside from like a half second delay it works fine

 

[colnago]

Your experience with VoIP is highly dependent on your network/circuit quality.

 

[bob60626]

Terrible. Call quality is fine but I've not been able to get rid of the delay on any of them, on wifi or data.

 

[chong67]

I thought if I have 4G everything would be great. But I am calling my friend to cellphone or land line and they are not using VOIP and sometimes the connection is just not that great. I cant figure this out.

 

[chong67]

i use groove ip or talkatone aside from like a half second delay it works fine

Talkatone has too much ad and the GUI looks ugly and I dont like ads.

Did talkatone suck all your battery juice?

I have been using Vonage.

 

[colnago]

I thought if I have 4G everything would be great. But I am calling my friend to cellphone or land line and they are not using VOIP and sometimes the connection is just not that great. I cant figure this out.

When latency starts to hit 150ms, call quality starts to suffer.

 

[NeXuS4]

Considering I pay $30 a month for my bill and talkatone was free I don't suppose I can complain about anything.

Even after my data has been throttled I can still use Talkatone and the speed is still enough to stream music and browse the internet without much lag.

 

[lightsleeper23]

I've never tried talking to a person who was also using grooveip, I've only talked to other mobiles and landlines. The landlines seemed to be the worst. I could hear them pretty good, despite an annoying delay, but they could not hear me well enough to carry on a conversation and they had to hang up. I really like the idea of this technology, but I dont think it's mature enough for general use yet.

 

[colnago]

I've never tried talking to a person who was also using grooveip, I've only talked to other mobiles and landlines. The landlines seemed to be the worst. I could hear them pretty good, despite an annoying delay, but they could not hear me well enough to carry on a conversation and they had to hang up. I really like the idea of this technology, but I dont think it's mature enough for general use yet.

If VoIP was not "mature", I don't think it would have been deployed for mission critical environments, on an enterprise level, throughout the world, for both business and government.

 

[chong67]

Considering I pay $30 a month for my bill and talkatone was free I don't suppose I can complain about anything.

Even after my data has been throttled I can still use Talkatone and the speed is still enough to stream music and browse the internet without much lag.

You do go over 5GB a month?

Do you all have some sort of a backup real phone? I dont have home phone and this is my only phone.

 

[chong67]

I've never tried talking to a person who was also using grooveip, I've only talked to other mobiles and landlines. The landlines seemed to be the worst. I could hear them pretty good, despite an annoying delay, but they could not hear me well enough to carry on a conversation and they had to hang up. I really like the idea of this technology, but I dont think it's mature enough for general use yet.

The landline seemed to be worst? I find this suprising. Why is that?

That is what happen to me yesterday. My parent could barely hear me and I have to scream.

 

[lightsleeper23]

If VoIP was not "mature", I don't think it would have been deployed for mission critical environments, on an enterprise level, throughout the world, for both business and government.

I stand by my opinion. You don't have to agree. I think if it was mature it could handle a simple local phone call. For all but a very few extreme cases. The number of reviews I have read about these apps seems to imply a good deal of people are not able to use them reliably for their main source of phone calls.

The base technology of VoIP may be a different story from the Android apps that are available to use through google voice, I don't know. I doubt the government is using grooveip through google voice on an Android phone.

 

[lightsleeper23]

The landline seemed to be worst? I find this suprising. Why is that?

That is what happen to me yesterday. My parent could barely hear me and I have to scream.

All I know is, I made several test calls to my gfs cell and she heard me ok. Not great, but ok. When I tired calling my parents across town, she could not hear me at all. I made several attempts, and they were all the same. I was shouting just for her to hear me, but she still couldn't understand me well.

 

[chong67]

I see. Same experience with me too. It is only this one time experience. Let me try this out for a month and see if VOIP is good.

I wonder those that buy VOIP as home line (not installed on Android app) will have no bad experience?

 

[colnago]

Again, quality of a VoIP call is dependent on the circuit quality. The problem with VoIP apps over a cellular networks is that the is nothing in the app to prioritize the Void traffic above other traffic traversing the carrier's network. Even then, there are many factors contributing to cellular link quality that a stable "low latency" connection to your VoIP provider's PRI may not always be possible.

 

[chong67]

Prioritize the traffic ... is it like QoS on the router?

So VOIP is just a toy and not ready for prime time.

 

[NeXuS4]

You do go over 5GB a month?

Do you all have some sort of a backup real phone? I dont have home phone and this is my only phone.

Yes but obviously I'm a very heavy data user and I couldn't survive on anything other than unlimited.

Also I don't have a back up phone and I would be lying if I told you VOIP was a substitute for a normal phone but then again I PAY $30 A MONTH SO I DON'T CARE.

 

[trekleech]

Well, I'm glad I found a thread with many replies about this topic. I asked this over at another thread and it was sorted moved into a specfic phone section, probably because of my suggestion for it to be moved.

Anyhow, I'm on Virgin Mobile now, switch from post paid TMobile and wanted to go with a cheaper alternative WiFi calling with Google + GrooVe IP.

The call quality is bad, very bad so far. I hear everyone without issues, but everyone complains they hear echos, delay or it like locks up, then drops the call. I'm using the paid version of GrooVe IP but that doesn't matter much.

So guess, I just have to go with the unlimited package for $55 and make calls over network.

Still beats my TMobile bill every month, plus, now I can actually afford to buy a new phone whenever I want.

Does anyone have another app or alternative method to try before I make the switch to unlimited. My case might be different since I'm on a strong ISP network and my WiFi connection should be great only one device and its sitting about 2 feet away.


Thanks everyone

 

[lightsleeper23]

Well, I'm glad I found a thread with many replies about this topic. I asked this over at another thread and it was sorted moved into a specfic phone section, probably because of my suggestion for it to be moved.

Anyhow, I'm on Virgin Mobile now, switch from post paid TMobile and wanted to go with a cheaper alternative WiFi calling with Google + GrooVe IP.

The call quality is bad, very bad so far. I hear everyone without issues, but everyone complains they hear echos, delay or it like locks up, then drops the call. I'm using the paid version of GrooVe IP but that doesn't matter much.

So guess, I just have to go with the unlimited package for $55 and make calls over network.

Still beats my TMobile bill every month, plus, now I can actually afford to buy a new phone whenever I want.

Does anyone have another app or alternative method to try before I make the switch to unlimited. My case might be different since I'm on a strong ISP network and my WiFi connection should be great only one device and its sitting about 2 feet away.


Thanks everyone

You could try talkatone...there's others but most of them require the other person to be using the same app. Skype and a couple others require you to buy credits, and even though they're not really expensive it sort of defeats the purpose of saving $ on your phone bill. Virgin does have a $45 plan that gives you 1200 minutes as well, if you're not aware. That was all I needed when I was with them. I use about 500 to 700 minutes average on a normal month.

 

[NeXuS4]

GrooveIP was bad for me. I got the paid version and asked for my money back.

 

[colnago]

You could try talkatone...there's others but most of them require the other person to be using the same app. Skype and a couple others require you to buy credits, and even though they're not really expensive it sort of defeats the purpose of saving $ on your phone bill. Virgin does have a $45 plan that gives you 1200 minutes as well, if you're not aware. That was all I needed when I was with them. I use about 500 to 700 minutes average on a normal month.

Skype is $3/mo for unlimited outbound calling (can use existing cell number as its caller ID), $6/mo for inbound. Works well for me, and calls to Europe are issue free. However it was easier to just go from $29/mo for 500 minutes, to $49/mo for unlimited on T-Mo.

Whether VoIP is ready for "prime time", it has been for some time now. However your VoIP provider, cellular carrier, and phone (some achieve better reception than others) is a different story. I'd try to make sure that I lived close to my VoIP provider's infrastructure, to minimize network latency (e.g. If you live in California, don't pick a provider with PRIs in New York).

 

[mundane24]

might be a good read ~ link here!

 

[chong67]

Yes but obviously I'm a very heavy data user and I couldn't survive on anything other than unlimited.

Also I don't have a back up phone and I would be lying if I told you VOIP was a substitute for a normal phone but then again I PAY $30 A MONTH SO I DON'T CARE.

I see. Did you ever get warning from Comcast about your data limit? I got a phone call from then few years back for going over 250gb. Now their limit meter is off, but dont know when it will start again.

I dont know if you are lying, do you have a real phone beside this VOIP toy?