Finally Got The $30 T-Mo Plan Going Today
Hello, I was following this thread a few months ago, but haven't kept up recently.
Had previously learned from these forums that even older iPhone-3Gs WILL work w/T-Mo ONLY IF you are in a REFARMED AREA (which we ARE, in FLA), & per their map I sit in their 2nd-to-top VERY GOOD (vs. Excellent) area. But the 3G-internet-speed on this plan is only showing 1-2 bars, pretty bad, sometimes 3. With ATT it was always 5 bars.
But since it's only been a few hours since activation, I'll obviously keep it going for the 1-month already paid & see how it goes. I knew it was somewhat of an "experiment" since I've never had T-Mo Internet w/a Smartphone before (& an older smartphone at that).
Online activation was easy, very clear as to how to do it, no problems at all. I did ask for a new phone # as I could care less about keeping prior #, so that was easy & they just happened to give me a VERY NICE # that I like.
I also added the $15 extra for the hotspot/tethering, but after activation & seeing only 1-2 bars for 3G Network Speed, I figure tethering a laptop is probably not going to work very well.
They credited the $30 almost right away that came w/the Activation Kit (previously read others said they had to call or wait a day or so before that $30 showed up in their acct., but that was not the case here today).
The Disappointments So Far (besides 1-2 bars internet speed):
1. Call Forward does not work. I should have figured that. As soon as you fill in the call forward #, it immediately removes it, it won't let it stick.
2. Tried six times to send a text msg. so far today, & every time it would get to near the end of the Send Bar & get stuck & never finish; would say "NOT DELIVERED" with a red exclamation point.
QUESTIONS, please, if anybody knows:
1. What is the max characters for this plan for text messages? I turned on the Character Count/Messages in iPhone Settings & it shows 160. So is that the T-Mo max characters for this plan per text message?
2. Might the low 1-2 bars be causing text msgs NOT to go through?
3. Is there any reason this $30 plan (if I get another kit) would NOT work on an iPad-Mini-Retina (which has cellular & wifi)? (they use Nano sims). I was thinking to maybe buy an iPad-Mini-Retina-w/Cellular+Wifi in future months.
4. Is there any reason NOT to just buy Sims from the T-Mo site itself, whether just the Sim or a "Starter Kit" (just to get a Nano sim to use w/iPad-Mini-Retina-Cellular) but use the $30 Plan MICRO-KIT Activation Card/#'s etc. that I have 2 extra of those from Walmart?
PRIOR HASSLE Just to Get the SIMS for This $30 Plan, FWIW
From March 11 through last week, just about six weeks, we tried repeatedly to get the STANDARD Sims from Target, like so many had mentioned in this thread & others, even providing the link @ Target for that exact product (I had already bought the $30 T-Mo Plan Micro Sim Kits from Walmart last October, just needed T-Mo Standard Sims).
What a royal hassle Target was. Even though we would check their site & do the "Store Locator/In Stock" check, copy that out, & go to the various Target Stores, every single time they said they did NOT have STANDARD sims, even though their website would show that store DID have them IN STOCK. So we did the same routine for numerous Target stores, even though their site said YES they DID have them, the stores would say NO they didn't. This went on for six weeks, numerous Target stores. So I would NOT recommend Target/T-Mo sims if you're looking for a STANDARD for a 3Gs! Can't trust what their website says re which stores in your location actually has them in stock!
Finally, totally by accident, I discovered that Walmart Online actually had what they call a COMBI-Sim for this exact same $30 T-Mo Plan. The sim is a combination Micro + STANDARD sim, total price w/taxes was like $42, ship to store, make sure they SCAN the bar code on the back of the pkg when you go to pick it up, or it won't activate online (the Walmart guy/clerk was NOT planning to scan it because he said it had already been paid for via ship-to-store, so we had to tell him to scan it, so then he did & it worked fine setting it up online @ T-Mo site.)
End of Story!
