Help I want a Nexus 4 but I am on Verizon...ideas/switching plan?

[y0bailey]

Alright...I am so fed up with Verizon bloatware and restrictions. I want a Nexus 4. My Gzone is slow as hell and so locked down/lack of recovery I am fed-up.

My wife and I are on a Verizon family plan (still have unlimited data, but she uses less than 1gb a month, I am always under 2-3gb a month). My wife has 15 months left on the plan (she is primary account). My upgrade is ready in 1-2 months. She is happy with Verizon and gets a decent discount through work.

I want off Verizon, and I want ideas on how to do so.

I was thinking the following:

Leave wife on Verizon, drop account to just her smartphone and a much smaller data plan.

Join T-mobile pre-paid $60 plan for me. Buy Nexus off Google Play. Profit.


Anyone have any other ideas? I don't want to pay an early termination fee to Verizon....I don't want them to have another one of my dollars.

 

[Rxpert83]

Once your contract is up you are free to go. Leave the wife n Verizon and go to t mobile

 

[yfan]

Leave wife on Verizon, drop account to just her smartphone and a much smaller data plan.

Join T-mobile pre-paid $60 plan for me. Buy Nexus off Google Play. Profit.

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. If you are willing to sign a new contract with T-mobile, however, and you're getting the Nexus 4, consider one of their value plans. You can get a value plan with unlimited data + text and 500 minutes for the same $60, or if you don't need any more than 2GB, you can get that for $50 a month on a value plan. You might want to check out the value plans before you decide what's best for you.

Personally, I have the T-mobile 5GB monthly4G plan for $30 a month. It only allows for 100 minutes, but I don't call that often, and I have Google voice which I can use with an app to route calls over the data connection.

 

[Stradevarius]

My contract on Verizon is up and I plan on buying the 16GB Nexus 4, switching my number to Google voice, and signing up for a T-Mobile 30 dollars a month prepaid plan (5GB data, 100 minutes, unlimited texting). The 100 minutes won't be a problem because of Google voice (phone calls on computer) and T-Mobile has good coverage where I live. So pumped!

 

[oppendroid]

My contract with Verizon is up in January and I am counting the days. I have the original HTC Incredible, rooted and running Albinoman's Jellybean ROM. It is the only thing keeping me sane while I wait out the contract.

I was going to pick up a GNex and go with Straight Talk on AT&T to start with but since the Play Store is no longer selling the GNex, I'll be getting an N4.

I know the N4 is going to be a huge improvement over my Incredible, but I can't determine if it's a better phone than the GNex.

 

[sean76]

My question is this?

On which network will this thing be faster on

Tmobile's HSPA+ network or at&t's

 

[gone down sout]

My question is this?

On which network will this thing be faster on

Tmobile's HSPA+ network or at&t's

Depends where you live.

 

[gone down sout]

My contract with Verizon is up in January and I am counting the days.

What's your ETF versus 3 more months of service?

 

[sean76]

Depends where you live.

NYC

 

[RickyDavis1051]

NYC

Here in Fresno, ca att blows T-Mobile outta the water. T-Mobile is crap here. I'm just gonna go prepaid with net10 (att). $50/month for unlimited everything including data!

 

[Bob Loblaw1]

Personally, I have the T-mobile 5GB monthly4G plan for $30 a month. It only allows for 100 minutes, but I don't call that often, and I have Google voice which I can use with an app to route calls over the data connection.

I've been considering this but I'm a little worried about call quality. Can someone tell me if there is much of an issue with dropped calls or call quality. I'll be using T-Mo.

Also, how exactly does it work? I'm pretty sure I have a Google voice number but I don't remember what it is. Which app would I use to route calls over the data connection? Could I use my old number or would I have to use my Google Voice #?

 

[JunBringer]

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. If you are willing to sign a new contract with T-mobile, however, and you're getting the Nexus 4, consider one of their value plans. You can get a value plan with unlimited data + text and 500 minutes for the same $60, or if you don't need any more than 2GB, you can get that for $50 a month on a value plan. You might want to check out the value plans before you decide what's best for you.

Personally, I have the T-mobile 5GB monthly4G plan for $30 a month. It only allows for 100 minutes, but I don't call that often, and I have Google voice which I can use with an app to route calls over the data connection.

I don't see the $30 plan on the t-mobile site you linked to.

I'm trying to understand the downside to this $30 a month plan here. It's so tempting. 100 minutes a month is no problem, as I barely use 5 or 10. Throttling after 5GB is fine too for that price. Any other downsides here? So tempting!

 

[Bob Loblaw1]

I don't see the $30 plan on the t-mobile site you linked to.

Monthly 4G Prepaid Plans | Compare Prepaid Data Plans | T-Mobile

 

[JunBringer]

There it is! I might test it out sometime for a month and see how the coverage is before I eventually move my fiance and I over to that. She'll never get up to 5GB a month, though she will talk on the phone a little more than me. I'll have to check her minutes on our statement.

 

[yfan]

I've been considering this but I'm a little worried about call quality. Can someone tell me if there is much of an issue with dropped calls or call quality. I'll be using T-Mo.

Also, how exactly does it work? I'm pretty sure I have a Google voice number but I don't remember what it is. Which app would I use to route calls over the data connection? Could I use my old number or would I have to use my Google Voice #?

Re: Call quality: over wifi, call quality rivals any VOIP service, including Vonage. It is excellent, to say the least. Over mobile data, however, call quality isn't the best. It's doable, and it works most everyday short calls, but if you are relying on calls over mobile data for conference calls for business, I wouldn't.

There are multiple apps to make it work. I use Talkatone.

You would have to use your Google Voice number in order to take advantage of this. You can either use your existing GV number or port your current number into a new Google Voice account. The porting will cost you $20, one time.

 

[jova33]

To the OP, the Verizon GNex isn't that bad. I made the jump from the Gz'One to the GNex. You can probably pick up a used one in excellent condition for $200.

There are some drawbacks:
Verizon withholds Google updates for up to three months - but you can install the official Google update the day it's released with a custom recovery.
Battery life stinks - I undervolt, have custom backlight settings, and a 2100 mAh battery that get me through a full day with moderate use.
The radio hardware is sub par. There's no fix for this.
The camera sucks. There's no fix for this.

I get stellar service everywhere with Verizon. I travel a lot too. So dumping Verizon wasn't really something I can do. I mean I could get a Nexus 4 and pay $60/mo for horrible service, dropped calls, and dead zones. Or pay $90/mo for great service, hardly ever dropped calls, LTE.
I may consider the Nexus 4 if they come out with a 32 GB version. And I'll definitely buy one if Google can crack a deal with Verizon.

 

[y0bailey]

Verizon is the worst. I am dropping them without batting an eye. I am considering paying the $200 in ETF fees to do the same with my wife.

They **** with phones too much. My Droid1 only had a few verizon apps. My Casio Commando came loaded with a few more. My wifes recent LG phone had so much shit on preloaded it was basically unusable.

Google is telling them to piss off for good reason. I am siding with Google on this one.

I am going from $150 a month for my wife and I to $30 for me, $50 for her (she needs more minutes and less data). That's over $700 a year saved.

We grew up in the time of no cell phones. We can survive with a lesser service. We are also in wifi having area's about 95% of the time, and my wife already doesn't get service with Verizon in her building so most people are already trained to contact her through g-chat. The other 5% of the time we go to the mountains of NC, and there is no service there no matter who you use.

Screw Verizon. In 1 year we will have paid off our ETF feas, paid for our new non-preloaded with crap phones, and will be living contract free...oh and we will be both enjoying a far superior phone than anything they offer.

 

[JunBringer]

Glad to see people sticking it to Verizon. I don't like their control freak mentality.

 

[jova33]

My contract is up in March. I've got until then to decide. I'm really hoping to see a 32GB Nexus 4, and then I'll make the switch to prepaid.

 

[krouget]

Glad to see people sticking it to Verizon. I don't like their control freak mentality.

I'm back on the fence with them, myself. After checking the coverage and data-speeds on T-Mobiles network, side-by-side with my VZW GNex, I walked away less than impressed. It was almost 1/8th slower than my device, in the same coverage area.

Giving up unlimited 4g is pretty big, and I'd hate to see Google turn around and release an LTE version, some months after.

 

[yfan]

I'm back on the fence with them, myself. After checking the coverage and data-speeds on T-Mobiles network, side-by-side with my VZW GNex, I walked away less than impressed. It was almost 1/8th slower than my device, in the same coverage area.

Giving up unlimited 4g is pretty big, and I'd hate to see Google turn around and release an LTE version, some months after.

Which market are you looking at? I doubt real life speed comparisons will come down to 1/8th the speed on T-mobile. Even on HSPA+ 21, you should get an average download of somewhere between 5 and 10 mbps (I get 7-12 on my GSM Galaxy Nexus all the time) on T-mobile. Verizon's LTE speeds in my area - under good conditions - can get to 15-20 mbps (although generally it's lower). That's a factor of 4 at best, not 8. With HSPA +42, the speeds rival each other, and T-mobile's HSPA+ 42 has beaten Verizon's LTE in certain markets.

As for Google releasing an LTE version, I doubt it very much. They are releasing the unlocked HSPA+ version specifically because the proprietary carrier mumbo jumbo and hoop-jumping required for LTE.

 

[Member110111]

I have my Verizon Galaxy Nexus through work. Where I work we have a choice of Verizon or AT&T. They were going to pay for my Nexus 4 and switch me over to AT&T. I was super excited, I could get a real Nexus not VZW's crippled one and I would be on a carrier that would probably get most/all future Nexi. Well, I borrowed someone's iPhone 4s to check out the service with AT&T in the places I frequent and it was horrible. The most I could get was 2 bars of service but the average was 0-1. Highest download speed I got around my my home neighborhood was .25mbps. But usually it was around .10. I have 3-4 bars always with VZW and my DL speeds are between 5-15mbps.

The crazy thing is I probably would have been ok with those horrible download speeds but I have to be able to make calls and I couldn't with AT&T.

So, just make sure you can get decent enough service before switching.

 

[mette711]

So, I talked to a Verizon rep to find out how much my ETF was going to be (on a family plan) and she told me she would give every line on the plan a $9.99 discount and then change my line to a test phone which would make it $9.99. Essentially bypassing the ETF.

Originally, I thought I'd be alright with that. I thought I would just get a new number and deal with it. The more I've thought about it, the more I don't want to change my phone number, but I still don't want to pay the ETF.

Does anyone know if I can still get the test phone put on my line, but somehow get them to change the number on the line so I can use my current number when I switch to T-Mobile?

 

[viper689]

Does anyone know if T-Mobile allows you to "test run" their service for a few days, risk free? I'm in the exact situation as the OP, currently on Verizon but getting bad customer service with my GNex, and while I have an upgrade available, I'm not sure if I want to re-up with Verizon. I don't get treat signal in my house but usually have good signal everywhere else, but wanna get a feel for T-Mobile before making such a big switch

 

[jova33]

You can try their prepaid service. I need more than 16 GB to convince me to switch though.