Forgot to mention; Tracfone holds the customer responsible/accountable/liable for any bad Info they coax out of a CSR. You are not allowed to confuse the CSR nor ask him to do something he does not realize is against the rules. You (not the CSR) promised to read, understand and memorize the rules.
I called them and told them that I was going to be traveling using my phones GPS for the next 60 days. That said and realizing that it would result in approx 2 Gb /day ( using sat view) they said NO PROBLEM JUST NO TETHERING !!!! Please forgive me if this is a repeat, i can't remember if I posted this earlier or not
Dude, get a map please.......or one of those Garmin things that stick to your windshield if you must have GPS all the time. You will drive yourself crazy (not to mention get cut off) if you use your phone like that.
My friend has been using his phone for GPS for the past few years (how ever long straight talk has been around) and he has yet to be cut off. He travels quite a bit. He uses the web as well. He is on an E71 now I am not sure what he originally had. He's the one that told me about straight talk. He's not a technical savvy person so he has not done the SIM swap.
I am still on "hold" with my road trip due to some family health issues. I nevertheless intend to use the device as intended and how it comes equipped, with a GPS as it REALLY HARD TO USE A PAPER MAP ON A HARLEY RIDING DOWN THE HIGHWAY GOING 70 MPH..Get my drift?! Why would I buy a garmin when I have a perfectly good GPS phone ?!?!?!? With software supplied by the carrier?? I also get to receive my phone calls using an cardo earpiece...Gotta let the bits fly my friend.
The part about "tricking " the CSR is pretty much an escape hatch for the carrier...Actually THEY should be able to TRICK us ?! Assuming they knew their job.. As far as doing so intentionally, No I simply stated that I've heard all the nightmare rumors about being deactivated and here is the story.. IS THERE ANY PROBLEM DOING SO ??She said "NO
,just don't tether" No problem with how much you use ! With that said.would I tether all day ? Nope.But I do tether for a few hours during the few power outages we'd had..Would I stream Netflix all day NO but I did tell the CSR that I would most likely watch a movie each evening during the trip "no problem, just don't...All together now...TETHER !!! That's the extent of my info (very little ). I do use it daily as a GPS 2 hours/day A LOT less than 8-12 hours per day as I will during my road trip but ??and I DO watch movies while I wrench on my bike that ads up to a couple of Gb's during the month I guess etc..Total monthly use about 6 Gb with me being the only one making any calls to anyone...
Would I use 12 Gb /mo on regular basis ? No....I don't know how you could without trying or tethering to a laptop all day. When and how they decide to contact you I wish I knew but I do not. I've been using it like this for about a year.
PS.. I am getting a little concerned of losing my number so I am thinking of switching my number over to Google and if it hits the fan, all will still be cool..Let the bit Gods do as they may if you have it you gotta use it..I also have a verion work phone (unlimited too) and use it 24/7 with NO idea but guessing close to 10 Gb /mo and never heard a word but again that is a corp account. I really abuse that line even when I am not around I'll leave it on Netflix just to keep the animals peaceful (not the kids, the girlfirinends..Oh crap I 'm dead !)
My friend has been using his phone for GPS for the past few years (how ever long straight talk has been around) and he has yet to be cut off. He travels quite a bit. He uses the web as well. He is on an E71 now I am not sure what he originally had. He's the one that told me about straight talk. He's not a technical savvy person so he has not done the SIM swap.
First to clear up a few things, GPS doesn't use any bandwidth at all. Its a signal sent down by US satellites and your phone has a dedicated receiver to pick up that signal. Now, your phone may use a tiny bit of data (less than 100KB) to download some assistance data to help it pick up the satellites, but its so little and its a once per day thing that its hardly consequential. (This assistance data isn't required for GPS to function, it just helps it lock on faster)
What does use data is a GPS app like Google Maps. On Androids, we have Google Maps and Navigation built-in, that uses data. However, you can use a dedicated GPS app on the phone that pre-downloads all the maps and data so it doesn't use any data after the initial download. I personally use CoPilot (https://market.android.com/details?i...ket.premiumusa) and its like a 1GB map download initially for the whole USA (which you want to do on Wifi) and then it basically doesn't need data from that point on.
There is also an app called Mapdroyd (?) that let's you cache ALL THE WORLDWIDE MAPS YOU WANT so You don't need any data at all for GPS.After All, satellite view is what eats up all the data .It's works well and is a little freaky as you have a "street map" and a little moving dot displaying your position while everyone else has just a 'dot' with no info. it's free but takes a little time to download and set up. It Doesn't have the detail of Google etc but it is a map and it does track your movements while displaying your position on the screen..
Another point-- for a quick lock, try an app called GPS STATUS ..I use it whenever I t takes any time to lock on, it's is almost immediate afterwards.. Enjoy If links are not allowed PLEASE DELETE HERE
Total monthly use about 6 Gb with me being the only one making any calls to anyone...
I've been using it like this for about a year.
Hold on there a second! So lemme get this straight you've been using ST a year and pulling 6GB a month and you don't get any heat from ST at all? I really want to learn more about your usage patterns so I can follow similar model. Even though I don't use that amount of data it would be good to have the ability/option.
Plus it sounds better than that less the 100MB per day plan.
Hold on there a second! So lemme get this straight you've been using ST a year and pulling 6GB a month and you don't get any heat from ST at all? I really want to learn more about your usage patterns so I can follow similar model. Even though I don't use that amount of data it would be good to have the ability/option.
Plus it sounds better than that less the 100MB per day plan.
I have definitely been lucky in my time with ST. I purchased an E71 around April of '10, and immediately put Joikuspot on it. I used it for wireless tethering here and there (which makes no sense that you can download that app in the first place since they don't allow tethering) Well, I drove 1500 miles and used the Nokia for GPS the whole way, then when I got to the destination I left the phone plugged in with Joikuspot running like a wireless router for about 4 days so we could connect computers to it, my wife's Nook. There was music downloaded thru it, books to my wife's Nook, Netflix was streamed on the computer thru that internet, and then a few days later I used the Nokia for GPS another 1500 miles back home. I don't know for sure, but I can say with some certainty I used at the very least 5+ gb of data in about a 3 week period. I was aware of the horror stories of being cut off, but decided I wanted to push my luck.. haha... Nowadays I have the sim in an Android and I have 3g Watchdog, and my wife as well with her ST sim in her Android.. It's a great deal!!! But I definitely want to keep enjoying it... We try to cap it at 100mb a day now, and about 2 to 3g per month. Still going good so far!!
Not too long ago AT&T began sending iPhone customers text messages notifying them they were using what the carrier considered too much data. These customers were owners of unlimited data plans, normally a plan that would be safe from hitting a cap.
AT&T told the customers if they remained in the top 5 percent of data users in their particular area they would throttle speeds for the rest of that billing period.
As if the throttling wasn’t chicken enough, AT&T refuses to tell the customers how much data they are allowed before getting lousy dial-up speeds imposed. According to AT&T they are throttling the top 5 percent of data users in a given area. That definition is meaningless to the customers affected, as it’s up to AT&T to determine when a given user enters the top 5 percent club. One day you’re not in the top 5, the next you are. I’ve heard from quite a few who have been throttled, and the magic data number seems to be around 2.1 GB of data usage when the dreaded throttling kicks in.
End of Copy/Paste
I think this confirms the magic number for ST users also, 2GB is what AT&T is allowing for unlimited.
But I prefer data to be throttled and not to be cutout of service.
I have definitely been lucky in my time with ST. I purchased an E71 around April of '10, and immediately put Joikuspot on it. I used it for wireless tethering here and there (which makes no sense that you can download that app in the first place since they don't allow tethering) Well, I drove 1500 miles and used the Nokia for GPS the whole way, then when I got to the destination I left the phone plugged in with Joikuspot running like a wireless router for about 4 days so we could connect computers to it, my wife's Nook. There was music downloaded thru it, books to my wife's Nook, Netflix was streamed on the computer thru that internet, and then a few days later I used the Nokia for GPS another 1500 miles back home. I don't know for sure, but I can say with some certainty I used at the very least 5+ gb of data in about a 3 week period. I was aware of the horror stories of being cut off, but decided I wanted to push my luck.. haha... Nowadays I have the sim in an Android and I have 3g Watchdog, and my wife as well with her ST sim in her Android.. It's a great deal!!! But I definitely want to keep enjoying it... We try to cap it at 100mb a day now, and about 2 to 3g per month. Still going good so far!!
Theres a data counter on the Nokia phone. Menu > Applications > Log. If you still have the E71, you can check it.
I use Google Maps often and down load pdf's a good bit for work orders. I've used over 200 MB in one day, thats not a regular thing though. I think my max has been 2.4 GB so far. Never got a call, I've been surfing a bunch on forums too. When I'm waiting on some one I'm usually reading a forum.
Since reading these threads on people getting cut off, I have been keeping it under 2 GB. My talk time is low though, around 300 to 400 minutes per month max.
I've had my Galaxy S 2 for about a week now, had previously been using the Nokia E71. Absolutely loving the Galaxy S 2, great phone, great display, great camera, fast processor, everything is great.
I expected the Galaxy S 2 to use more data than the Nokia E71, but I've been surprised by how much more data hungry Android is. Before I didn't really have to worry about Straight Talk cutting me off, because I just wasn't using that much data with the E71. The Galaxy S 2 uses MUCH MUCH MUCH more data. Thankfully I have Wi-Fi at home and at work, so I don't have to worry most of the day. I have the 3G Watchdog app installed, and I've already used about 800 MB's of data on the Wi-Fi connection, and that was only with streaming a few YouTube videos and streaming a few songs through the Google Music app, mostly as a test, not even watching the video all the way through. I'll be much more cautious with my data use when outside range of Wi-Fi, that's for sure.
If your on Wifi, the YouTube app defaults to HD, which yeah as you saw, sucks bandwidth like none other. Thats part of the reason ST "says" no streaming videos/music/audio/radio on cellular data, its a bandwidth hog and they don't want heavy data users on their service. If your only on 3G/4G, the Youtube app defaults to standard def (SD) so it uses less bandwidth. (Not that I'm saying its a good idea)
Got a IPhone 4 using a e71 SIM on ST. Ive noticed as of late that my speed is almost dead. Everything runbs slower now.
I don't tether, and I do watch videos, but work and home I have wifi. WTF is up? How can I tell how much data I'm using. It's getting ridiculous. I like ST, but if I have to deal with this garbage I'll just go somewhere else.
Originally Posted by Tracfancier
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