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$30/month unlimited data plan and google voice

gtbarry

gtbarry

Android Expert
I just switched over to the $30/month 4g plan (100 minutes/unlimited text/unlimited data (4g up to 5gb).

Since the change my phone is defaulting to t-mobile voicemail even though I have google voice selected. (Even tried setting it to tmobile voicemail and then back to google voice). But I seem stuck on t-mobile voicemail instead of my google voice.

Is this a problem for anyone else?

Thanks!
 
This is one of the major limitations of a prepaid plan - no call forwarding. So with prepaid, calls to your GV number can go to GV voicemail but calls to your T-Mobile number cannot. To use GV voicemail for all calls you *must* have a postpaid plan. You do *not* have to be on-contract, just postpaid.

Another reason I will never go prepaid to save a few bucks...

Linux user #266351. Android since v1.0
 
Crashdamage said:
This is one of the major limitations of a prepaid plan - no call forwarding. So with prepaid, calls to your GV number can go to GV voicemail but calls to your T-Mobile number cannot.

Linux user #266351. Android since v1.0
Click to expand...

This is true of the prepaid plans from T-Mobile. Solavei (T-Mobile MVNO - prepaid) does support conditional call forwarding so you can use GV for your sim number and your GV number.

It's one of the reasons I went with Solavei.
 
bob60626 said:
I thought I'd read that you could call up and have your TMobile voicemail disabled.
Click to expand...

My understanding is people do this so they can use GV voicemail for their GV number. The sim number then has no voicemail. It's a workaround if you never use your sim number. With T-Mobile prepaid you can't get your sim number to GV voicemail. (With Solavei, or T-Mobile UnCarrier, you can use GV voicemail for both numbers.)
 
bob60626 said:
I thought I'd read that you could call up and have your TMobile voicemail disabled.
Click to expand...
I read the same thing.

runtmms said:
My understanding is people do this so they can use GV voicemail for their GV number. The sim number then has no voicemail. It's a workaround if you never use your sim number. With T-Mobile prepaid you can't get your sim number to GV voicemail. (With Solavei, or T-Mobile UnCarrier, you can use GV voicemail for both numbers.)
Click to expand...
From what I read with t mobile vm not active the google vm then picks up.
 
Crashdamage said:
It does not. You must have call forwarding to use GV voicemail for your T-Mobile number.
Click to expand...

I tried to manually set call forwarding for calls that are not answered and I got an error along the lines of "unexpected response from network" and was unable to set it.
 
Crashdamage said:
This is one of the major limitations of a prepaid plan - no call forwarding. So with prepaid, calls to your GV number can go to GV voicemail but calls to your T-Mobile number cannot. To use GV voicemail for all calls you *must* have a postpaid plan. You do *not* have to be on-contract, just postpaid.
Click to expand...

This sucks because I love google voice and I was actually kind of excited about being on mobile data for the first time and being able to use my google voice on the road (before I just relied on the text messages sent by google voice to my phone to be accurate enough for me to understand the gist of what was being said).

Just curious if anyone has an idea on how to pressure t-mobile to change this. I know how to make a point to a corporation, but I honestly thing that the brick wall would reply "that is why you should be on post paid" or "get a more expensive plan kid."

But given the "uncarrier" launch, this might look bad PR for tmobile.

Just wondering if there were any good realistic ideas out there.
 
gtbarry said:
This sucks because I love google voice and I was actually kind of excited about being on mobile data for the first time and being able to use my google voice on the road (before I just relied on the text messages sent by google voice to my phone to be accurate enough for me to understand the gist of what was being said).

Just curious if anyone has an idea on how to pressure t-mobile to change this. I know how to make a point to a corporation, but I honestly thing that the brick wall would reply "that is why you should be on post paid" or "get a more expensive plan kid."

But given the "uncarrier" launch, this might look bad PR for tmobile.

Just wondering if there were any good realistic ideas out there.
Click to expand...

I don't see T-Mobile changing this. I have long suspected the $30 plan is a clever ploy to get people to try T-Mobile, decide they need more minutes or functionality, then step up to a bigger plan. (I went through all this research in January - also my first time with data.)

One option for you would be to port your main number to Google Voice. Turn off the T-Mobile voicemail, and only use your GV number - which would use GV voicemail. The biggest problem with this is GV doesn't support MMS, only SMS. You could send/receive MMS with your sim number, but if you got called on that number you wouldn't have voicemail.

I wanted a cheap data plan, so I decided to gamble with Solavei. It's $49 for unlimited talk/text/data unthrottled for 4GB. They also have a referral program where they will pay you back $20/month for every three people who sign up through your link and stay customers. I thought it was a good deal to start with. I also thought that I could find three people who agreed with me. That's how I got my cheap data plan.
 
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