Questions before switching over to T-Mobile $30 plan
Hello to everyone. I am new to T-Mobile, have been pretty active over on the StraightTalk forum here at HOFO for a while. Background: My wife and I spent a few years on Virgin Mobile. In February, when the BYOD program his ST, I left Virgin, bought an iPhone, and was happy. About a month ago, I lost my iPhone on a roller coaster ride (literally), and replaced it with a Galaxy Nexus. I like it, and so did my wife, so I ordered one for her. I need more minutes (use about 1000 many months), so will likely stay on ST, but am planning to get my wife set up on the $30 Tmobile plan this weekend. My problem was that we've been on vacation all week, and I didn't do my homework ahead of time, so didn't order her a sim kit from TM website. Her plan on Virgin expires on the 21st, which is next Tuesday, so I want to get her set up before that. So, after reading some posts here, I went to Walmart tonight and bought one of the $30 phones there to get the sim card. Have to go pick up the phone a work tomorrow since it was delivered while I was on vacation. But I still have a few questions that I need answered, even after reading all the pertinent threads for the last month on this section of HOFO. So please, any help you can give will be appreciated.
1. Since I bought the $30 phone from Walmart, do I have to activate the sim on the $30 plan in that phone first, and then switch it over to the Nexus, or do I just activate the sim online and stick it in the nexus without disturbing the t139?
2. Can I activate the sim tomorrow and try out the service for a few days, and then port the number from her Virgin account on Monday or Tuesday? I think from what I've read here that you can do that, but that's something you can't do on StraightTalk, as they require a new sim to port into, and ST was my first experience in Sim Cards or GSM.
3. Need to confirm -- the $30 card provides 30 days, not a month of service, correct? ST is 30 days, Virgin is 1 month (same day each month)
4. Tethering - We don't tether much, usually just to use ipad on larger screen, not extensive surfing on a laptop. Will the built-in tethering that's part of Jelly Bean on the Nexus work, or will that trigger them to charge a tethering fee? Any other specific suggestions for this? I've seen the name foxfi, but haven't tried it yet on my nexus as I just read about it while on vacation, and we just arrive home late this afternoon.
5. Anything I need to know about porting that is weird or unique to TM?
6. Any other advice or tidbit that I should know about TM prepay before I dive in?
7. Since the sim kits were only $0.99 with free shipping, I went ahead and ordered one even though I knew it wouldn't be here before I have to switch her over on Tuesday. Could I take that sim kit and put it with the $30 phone I bought at Walmart and sell it - in other words, it would be like offering it brand new for sale, just replacing the sim that came with the phone with the one from the kit? I'm likely to keep it just to have a backup phone and sim in case something were to happen to her nexus.
Again, I thank you for any advice or help you can give me. I've relied on the advice of HOFO members for years, and have tried to offer my own advice in the areas where I have something worth offering. Look forward to getting to know some of you through our interactions.
1.) You only need to activate the SIM online. You don't need to do anything with the other phone.
2.) You can port your number any time without needing a new SIM.
3.) It's 30 days exactly.
4.) TMO's has tethering detection, but from what people have stated here, all it looks for is which browser you're using. If it's a computer browser, they block you. I've heard reports that people have been able to use it without any problems even on desktops, thoug. I have a myTouch 3G I use as a tethering hotspot for my Droid 3, and I've used almost 1 GB in a single tethering session without issues, so you iPad should be safe. If Jelly Bean's built in tethering doesn't work, try FoxFi from the Play store. It's free and doesn't require rooting.
5.) Nothing weird about porting. Just don't cancel your old service first.
6.) Which $30 plan is she on? There's two of them.
7.) The SIM is not tied to the phone, so the phone will be just like new.
Any phone will work as long as the phone is active when T-Mobile activation occurs. I did the same thing ($30 5GB 4G plan) by buying the cheap flip phone then unlocking my Droid 3 and sticking it in there.
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