Anyone here using or is familiar with the Luckymobile service?

https://luckymobile.ca

Recently, they reconfigured their packages.

Examples..

WAS:

$40/mo = 5GB data
$25/mo = 500MB data

NOW:

$40/mo = 74GB data
$34/mo = 50GB data
$29/mo = 20GB data

New first time users can get 35GB data for 2 years at the $29
pricepoint

Also.. is anyone using Luckymobile manual top-ups and
encountering balances that don't get used up?


--- OpenXP 5.0.58
* Origin: Ogg's Dovenet Point (723:320/1.9)
■ Synchronet ■ CAPCITY2 * capcity2.synchro.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/Rlogin/HTTP

Anyone here using or is familiar with the Luckymobile service? https://luckymobile.ca

$40/mo = 74GB data
$34/mo = 50GB data
$29/mo = 20GB data
New first time users can get 35GB data for 2 years at the $29
pricepoint

Hmmm - this might be interesting, I use around 50-60GB a month. Hmmmmmm. I know Mint Mobile is a good alternative, but I'm still on Tmobile. Do you use the service??? How is it for youtube streaming on the network?



|07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
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Hello paulie420!

Anyone here using or is familiar with the Luckymobile service?
https://luckymobile.ca

[...]

New first time users can get 35GB data for 2 years at the
$29 pricepoint

Hmmm - this might be interesting, I use around 50-60GB a
month. Hmmmmmm. I know Mint Mobile is a good alternative,
but I'm still on Tmobile. Do you use the service??? How is
it for youtube streaming on the network?

Yes.. I've been with luckymobile.ca for several years.
Throughout the years the prices and data combos seemed to be
improving (ie. more data for the buck). They were the first
mobile service to offer "unlimited" (albiet, throttled) data -
and that is why I leaped to them after my first foray was with
Rogers. Prior to that, my first access to mobile was with the
Roger's Stick.

Rogers offered something like $30/mo for 2GB, 2G speeds, and
then overage/additional data was priced on a tiered basis in
500MB chunks or something like that. I used a local datausage
counter and tried to always below a certain amount to avoid
extra charges.

Then I just happend to hear about luckymobile.ca from a friend.
And.. for the same amount of money I was paying for Rogers, I
could get more data and unlimited 3G data (throttled to 128Kbps
max) ..and that seemed amazing compared to anything else out
there at the time.

The luckymobile service was incompatible with the Roger's Stick
device (even when I unlocked it) since 2G was not supported.
So.. I happend to have a Blackberry that wasn't being used for
anything except photos and wifi, and decided to try
luckymobile.

It worked really well, considering that my rural home location
was somewhat remote from most of the other towers in the area.
But one tower was basically due north from some large windows
in the home, and that was perfect.

Some other competitively priced mobile services do *not*
provide unlimited/throttled data unless you enter around the
$45/mo pricepoint. But the latest luckymobile plans seem to be
the best they have offered to date compared to the others here:
Publicmobile, Chatr, Virginmoble, Bell..

That is why I decided to give a shoutout about this. Maybe
someone would like to be aware of an alternative.


--- OpenXP 5.0.58
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Yes.. I've been with luckymobile.ca for several years.
Throughout the years the prices and data combos seemed to be
improving (ie. more data for the buck). They were the first
mobile service to offer "unlimited" (albiet, throttled) data -
and that is why I leaped to them after my first foray was with
Rogers. Prior to that, my first access to mobile was with the
Roger's Stick.

Then I just happend to hear about luckymobile.ca from a friend.
And.. for the same amount of money I was paying for Rogers, I
could get more data and unlimited 3G data

Nice - I didn't first notice the .ca in the address, hopefully others in Canada area able to use lucky.



|07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
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Hello paulie420!

Nice - I didn't first notice the .ca in the address,
hopefully others in Canada area able to use lucky.

I was *wondering* why you were going on about cable, when I
clearly mentioned mobile. ;) Anyway, I tried to steer the
topic back to mobile matters.

BTW.. are there any comparable price+data schemes in the USA,
or does this look like mobile in Canada still remains the
highest priced?

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Ogg wrote to paulie420 <=-

BTW.. are there any comparable price+data schemes in the USA,
or does this look like mobile in Canada still remains the
highest priced?

I mentioned cable just because of the bait and switch, not because of
relevance to data plan comparisons.

I'm on a MVNO called Cricket, wholly owned by AT&T. Their $60 plan
includes hot spot and 25 GB of data per 30 days. After that, they scale
speeds down to 3G - enough for basics, but not streaming.

They have a $10 autopay discount, then as you add more lines each line
is successively cheaper. I pay $130/month for 4 "unlimited" lines. If I
were on AT&T, I'd pay twice that, and they wouldn't warn me when we went
over, they just happily charge overage fees.



... This is it -- the center of the maze...
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
■ Synchronet ■ .: realitycheckbbs.org :: scientia potentia est :.

BTW.. are there any comparable price+data schemes in the USA,
or does this look like mobile in Canada still remains the
highest priced?

We have Mint mobile over here which is similar - pay for GBs and its geared towards budget plans... but thats around the budget mobile $$$ I see here, too.

I wanna switch - I'm just scared that I use too much data and/or the service won't be as good as T-Mobile.



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Re: Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: paulie420 to Ogg on Tue Apr 16 2024 05:47 pm

I wanna switch - I'm just scared that I use too much data and/or the service won't be as good as T-Mobile.

I've heard a lot of people say T-Mobile service isn't very good.. And years ago, I knew someone who had T-Mobile, and she had a lot of dropped phone calls.

Currently I'm using Verizon's budget plan at $35/month (there's a tax that makes it $36.65/month). It starts out at $55/month and then goes down after a certain number of months as a loyalty discount. I think the service has been pretty good. I've had it for over 3 years now and I haven't gone over the data limit. I tend to use data more when I'm at home on my wifi though. Also, with Verizon, you have a SIM card, so you can use any compatible unlocked phone if you want to. I used to be with a budget carrier (Boost Mobile, and Virgin Mobile before Boost took over), and you were basically locked to their service with their phones, so I'm glad I can use basically any phone now.

Nightfox

---
■ Synchronet ■ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: Nightfox to paulie420 on Tue Apr 16 2024 06:47 pm

I've heard a lot of people say T-Mobile service isn't very good.. And years ago, I knew someone who had T-Mobile, and she had a lot of dropped phone calls.

I've been using T-Mobile for about 10 years, AT&T before that. T-Mobile is at least as good as AT&T was, better Internationally, and the voice quality between T-Mobile users is pretty spectacular (uses special high-fidelity modes when making calls in-network).
--
digital man (rob)

Sling Blade quote #23:
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---
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Hello paulie420!

I wanna switch - I'm just scared that I use too much data and/or the service won't be as good as T-Mobile.

When I first learned about luckymobile.ca, I decided to try it
for a month. All I had to do was buy the SIM and register it
myself. If the service wasn't good enough (at home, far from
cell towers) I figured I could just drop it by not paying for
the 2nd month.

Well.. it turned out that the service was quite solid and the
signal was exellent. I don't remember the data tier that I
started with, the whole pricing structure and unlimited/
throttled data was much better than I had with Roger's and
their overrage charges. So.. the switch was easy to make.

Throttled data was still good enough for FTN, emails and most
simple www usage.


--- OpenXP 5.0.58
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Hello Nightfox!

..I used to be with a budget carrier (Boost Mobile, and
Virgin Mobile before Boost took over), and you were
basically locked to their service with their phones, so I'm
glad I can use basically any phone now.

Didn't the FCC make it manadatory for all mobile devices to be
unlocked at some point? So.. technically, you should be able
to use any device today that *was* sold as locked and get that
company to you give you the unlock codes?


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Digital Man wrote to Nightfox <=-

I've been using T-Mobile for about 10 years, AT&T before that. T-Mobile
is at least as good as AT&T was, better Internationally, and the voice quality between T-Mobile users is pretty spectacular (uses special high-fidelity modes when making calls in-network). --

Tmobile was great in the SF bay area, horrible out here on the coast.
AT&T and Verizon duke it out to see who's less worse, but I end up using
wi-fi calling at my house all the time because the 5g signal isn't
sufficient.

I do remember Tmobile call quality, I had a hundred or so lines through
them for my company back in the 2010s. Great quality, but dead spots on
my commute - I knew exactly where my calls would drop.

Tmobile was the first that I'd heard of to do wifi calling - I was in
Mexico in 2010 or so, and they'd just rolled out UMA, as they called it.
I hooked up the local wifi, got dial tone from Dallas/Fort Worth, and
made local calls to the US from there. Very cool.




... Always the first steps
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Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: Ogg to Nightfox on Wed Apr 17 2024 07:29 am

..I used to be with a budget carrier (Boost Mobile, and Virgin Mobile
before Boost took over), and you were basically locked to their service
with their phones, so I'm glad I can use basically any phone now.

Didn't the FCC make it manadatory for all mobile devices to be unlocked at some point? So.. technically, you should be able to use any device today that *was* sold as locked and get that company to you give you the unlock codes?

I hadn't heard about that.. But even then, a lot of the cell phones sold by those budget phone carriers don't even have a place for a SIM card. They're locked to the carrier and there's nothing you can really do about it, so even if there was a way to unlock those phones, I doubt it would really be useful if you can't put a different SIM card in it.

Nightfox

---
■ Synchronet ■ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

I've heard a lot of people say T-Mobile service isn't very good.. And years ago, I knew someone who had T-Mobile, and she had a lot of dropped phone calls.

It works well for me - all depends on where you're at, too. For example, in Austin, TX T-Mobile is one of the best... but theres a few dead spots around the rural areas in the pacific northwest.

Currently I'm using Verizon's budget plan at $35/month (there's a tax
that makes it $36.65/month). It starts out at $55/month and then goes down after a certain number of months as a loyalty discount.

My issue is that I often use 60-70Gb per month. I pay around $120 for 2 lines but know my daughter and I burn a lot of data each month... I really don't use the phone features much and could get away with some VOIP solution and switch over to data only.

I remember a time when Apple was attempting to move iPhones to all-data but they never got there. Its one of the reasons they went Verizon only for the 1st year - supposedly they wanted to sell the data plans and make iPhones fully functional w/o cellular... I bet if they'd of been trying to doso now as opposed to more than a decade ago that that would have been more a possibility.



|07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
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Hello Nightfox!

Didn't the FCC make it manadatory for all mobile devices to be unlocked

I hadn't heard about that.. But even then, a lot of the cell phones sold by those budget phone carriers don't even have a place for a SIM card. They're locked to the carrier and there's nothing you can really do about it, so even if there was a way to unlock those phones, I doubt it would really be useful if you can't put a different SIM card in it.

Sorry, I hadn't heard of the mobile devices without SIM cards.

I have no experience with "throw away cellphones". Maybe those
are what you speak of?

I just know that early on, the devices were locked to the
seller. But there was always the ability to change the SIM.

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Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: Ogg to Nightfox on Wed Apr 17 2024 07:14 pm

Sorry, I hadn't heard of the mobile devices without SIM cards.

There's a new thing called "eSIM", maybe that's what they're referring to: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/esim-explainer/
--
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Breaking Bad quote #27:
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---
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Hello Digital Man!

Sorry, I hadn't heard of the mobile devices without SIM cards.

There's a new thing called "eSIM", maybe that's what they're referring
to: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/esim-explainer/

Locked-devices with physical SIMs predate eSIM tech which
emerged in 2016.

However, "Different mobile telephones may not support an eSIM,
may have a permanently programmed, unchangeable one, or one
that can be reprogrammed for any carrier that supports the
technology." ..so, there does seem to be a case were there
are "unchageable" eSIMs.

Since Dec 2017, "The CRTC, Canada's wireless regulator, has
ruled that every cellphone sold in the country must be
unlocked, and carriers can no longer charge their customers to
unlock their current devices"

Something similar took place in USA.

So there is a narrow window when eSIM tech emerged 2016 and
when the unlocking was mandated, and where some devices have
the "unchangeable" eSIM variety.

But *all* mobile devices after 2017 have to be unlockable.



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I just know that early on, the devices were locked to the
seller. But there was always the ability to change the SIM.

My first mobile may have had a SIM in it somewhere but you would have had
to take it apart to find it. It didn't have a "SIM port" like the
otherwise closed Apple (and many Android) devices do today. My second
phone, a flip phone that I really liked, may have had a SIM in it also but
I don't remember seeing one in the small battery compartment.

I got the first phone c2000 and the flip phone sometime between then and
2014, when I got my first "smart" phone. It had a SIM card in the
battery compartment.


* SLMR 2.1a * May The Force be with you...
---
■ Synchronet ■ CAPCITY2 * capcity2.synchro.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/Rlogin/HTTP

Ogg wrote to Nightfox <=-

Didn't the FCC make it manadatory for all mobile devices to be
unlocked at some point? So.. technically, you should be able
to use any device today that *was* sold as locked and get that
company to you give you the unlock codes?

I'm not sure what the law is, but my carrier requires that you have
service for 6 months before unlocking a phone. It seems only fair, they discount the price of the phone with the expectation of getting the
discount back with service. Otherwise we'd all need to pay full price
all the time.



... YORGAMAK HAS ARRIVED AND WILL INITIATE DESTRUCTIMATION.
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Ogg wrote to Nightfox <=-

Sorry, I hadn't heard of the mobile devices without SIM cards.

They're called eSIM "cards", I'm assuming you just enter the SIM
information into the phone and it activates.

I have no experience with "throw away cellphones". Maybe those
are what you speak of?

Those are typically regular pre-paid cellular phones that you buy with
cash.



... YORGAMAK HAS ARRIVED AND WILL INITIATE DESTRUCTIMATION.
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Re: Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: paulie420 to Nightfox on Wed Apr 17 2024 06:13 pm

I remember a time when Apple was attempting to move iPhones to all-data

What does that mean?

but they never got there. Its one of the reasons they went Verizon only for the 1st year - supposedly they wanted to sell the data plans and make

I remember the iPhone only being available through AT&T for the first year or two in the US..

Nightfox

---
■ Synchronet ■ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: Ogg to Nightfox on Wed Apr 17 2024 07:14 pm

Sorry, I hadn't heard of the mobile devices without SIM cards.

I have no experience with "throw away cellphones". Maybe those are what you speak of?

No. I had a couple of Samsung Galaxy phones with Virgin Mobile, and they didn't have SIM cards; they also had a custom ROM on them that showed a Virgin Mobile logo when you turned on the phone, etc..

Nightfox

---
■ Synchronet ■ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: Digital Man to Ogg on Wed Apr 17 2024 10:55 pm

Sorry, I hadn't heard of the mobile devices without SIM cards.

There's a new thing called "eSIM", maybe that's what they're referring to: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/esim-explainer/

I don't know if the phones I had were using eSIM. I had used Virgin Mobile off and on, but steadily between about 2011 to 2021. Most of the smartphones I had with Virgin Mobile didn't have a SIM card and were locked to Virgin Mobile - Maybe they were using eSIM, I'm not sure.

Nightfox

---
■ Synchronet ■ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: Ogg to Digital Man on Thu Apr 18 2024 07:47 am

There's a new thing called "eSIM", maybe that's what they're referring
to: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/esim-explainer/

Locked-devices with physical SIMs predate eSIM tech which emerged in 2016.

However, "Different mobile telephones may not support an eSIM, may have a permanently programmed, unchangeable one, or one that can be reprogrammed for any carrier that supports the technology." ..so, there does seem to be a case were there are "unchageable" eSIMs.

Since Dec 2017, "The CRTC, Canada's wireless regulator, has ruled that every cellphone sold in the country must be unlocked, and carriers can no longer charge their customers to unlock their current devices"

Something similar took place in USA.

So there is a narrow window when eSIM tech emerged 2016 and when the unlocking was mandated, and where some devices have the "unchangeable" eSIM variety.

I'd say less than 5-7 years ago, maybe a little longer, all sim card tech phones were GSM, att, etc.. and CDMA phones were mainly the locked phones, around here that was verizon, sprint, and some off their affiliates like virgin mobile, most all the ones that ran on CDMA were locked to their carriers, a lot of the GSMs could swap. afaik with 4-5g now all rolled out and 2 and 3g finally gone, I presume CDMA is now only used (maybe in radios?). but around here anyway, back in those days. verizon was king and none of their phones had sim card.
---
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Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: Nightfox to Ogg on Thu Apr 18 2024 09:43 am

Sorry, I hadn't heard of the mobile devices without SIM cards.

I have no experience with "throw away cellphones". Maybe those are what
you speak of?

No. I had a couple of Samsung Galaxy phones with Virgin Mobile, and they didn't have SIM cards; they also had a custom ROM on them that showed a Virgin Mobile logo when you turned on the phone, etc..

Yep, when I was with virgin, they were under SPRINT, and they used CDMA technology, which worked better than any of the GSM carriers around here, so until LTE rolled out I stuck with Virgin, now I use Hello Mobile, which uses T-Mobile towers around here, and service is great, 25 dollars a month gives me all the data I have ever needed. But I alway though Virgin mobile was pretty crafty with what they offered. they always tried to offer "Edgy" phones that were not only budget friendly for younger people, but also pretty cool for what they were.
---
Tim (kk4qbn)
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Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: kk4qbn to Nightfox on Thu Apr 18 2024 04:33 pm

gives me all the data I have ever needed. But I alway though Virgin mobile was pretty crafty with what they offered. they always tried to offer "Edgy" phones that were not only budget friendly for younger people, but also pretty cool for what they were.

Yeah, I thought they offered cool phones. I don't know if Virgin Mobile exists anywhere else, but at least in my area, they were taken over by Boost Mobile. I had bought a Samsung Galaxy S20 phone right after Boost took over in 2020, and I noticed it was having problems staying connected to LTE/data - Often it would disconnect and re-connect. One day, I took it in to a Boost Mobile shop and asked the employee there if they could help. They ended up calling central company support.. That phone did have a SIM (though I heard the phone was still locked to Boost's network); they tried swapping the SIM but then it wouldn't connect. Eventually they swapped the original SIM back in, but the phone still wouldn't connect, and it basically became unusable, and the store employee said they were out of options and couldn't help more. I decided to sell that phone on eBay as-is (I mentioned what was going on), and I decided to buy an unlocked phone and went to Verizon to set up service with them. And someone did buy the Boost phone on eBay.

Nightfox

---
■ Synchronet ■ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: Nightfox to kk4qbn on Thu Apr 18 2024 03:39 pm

Yeah, I thought they offered cool phones. I don't know if Virgin Mobile exists anywhere else, but at least in my area, they were taken over by Boost Mobile. I had bought a Samsung Galaxy S20 phone right after Boost took over in 2020, and I noticed it was having problems staying connected to LTE/data - Often it would disconnect and re-connect. One day, I took it in to a Boost Mobile shop and asked the employee there if they could help. They ended up calling central company support.. That phone did have a SIM (though I heard the phone was still locked to Boost's network); they tried swapping the SIM but then it wouldn't connect. Eventually they swapped the original SIM back in, but the phone still wouldn't connect, and it basically became unusable, and the store employee said they were out of options and couldn't help more. I decided to sell that phone on eBay as-is (I mentioned what was going on), and I decided to buy an unlocked phone and went to Verizon to set up service with them. And

I've never been one who liked paying premium prices for a name. Yeah with some "premium" phones you do get better hardware, etc. I usually wait about 4 or 5 months until the "new" wears off a feature or service, and buy unlocked cheaper branded phones, never has steered me wrong and god forbid it gets stolen, dropped in a toilet, or ran over on I75 (all of this has happened to me) I'm not out too much money to replace it. :-)
---
Tim (kk4qbn)
+o kk4qbn.synchro.net
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Hello pF!

I'm not sure what the law is, but my carrier requires that
you have service for 6 months before unlocking a phone. It
seems only fair, they discount the price of the phone with
the expectation of getting the discount back with service.
Otherwise we'd all need to pay full price all the time.

My point is that all mobile device must already be unlocked at
the time of sale. That is my understanding.

Perhaps the 6mo service requirement is just contractual only.
Should be nothing stopping you from inserting another SIM and
using that if you want and changing between them.




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Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: Ogg to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Apr 20 2024 08:26 am

Hello pF!

I'm not sure what the law is, but my carrier requires that
you have service for 6 months before unlocking a phone. It
seems only fair, they discount the price of the phone with
the expectation of getting the discount back with service.
Otherwise we'd all need to pay full price all the time.

My point is that all mobile device must already be unlocked at
the time of sale. That is my understanding.

Perhaps the 6mo service requirement is just contractual only.
Should be nothing stopping you from inserting another SIM and
using that if you want and changing between them.

i never heard of that but i guess it happened years ago. i know people who have locked phones right now. maybe the people CAN unlock their phones and don't know or what. not sure. they are happy with their carrier. i've always used unlocked phones and jumped around so not sure.

right now i'm on straighttalk and they want me to put a verizon sim in and i don't want to.
---
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Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: Digital Man to Ogg on Wed Apr 17 2024 10:55 pm

There's a new thing called "eSIM", maybe that's what they're referring to: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/esim-explainer/

eSIMs can, in theory, be reprogrammed. You could link your phone to a service provider and then switch to a different service provider, unless I am mistaken.
--
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Re: Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Ogg on Tue Apr 16 2024 06:42 am

I'm on a MVNO called Cricket, wholly owned by AT&T. Their $60 plan

is successively cheaper. I pay $130/month for 4 "unlimited" lines. If I

Have you heard of StraightTalk? They are an MVNO on all the networks, but you can pick AT&T specifically (what I did). Never did the multi-line thing myself, but their website says you can get four "unlimited" lines for $100/mo. That gives each line 10gb of hotspot data, and you can pay more for more of that. Another one is RedPocket, who has some decent deals on yearly plans, and at least once a year has a really good sale. Personally, I don't use more than 1-2gb per month, so when their 1year 5gb/mo plan comes around for $130-150, it's hard to say no. Again on AT&T network (if that's your thing).

Also, just to throw some more info out.. prepaidcompare.net has a pretty good listen of MVNO plans, should you want to just see what's out there.

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Re: Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: Nightfox to paulie420 on Tue Apr 16 2024 06:47 pm

I've heard a lot of people say T-Mobile service isn't very good.. And years

It's all about where you live. In some places, TMo is the best. Here in Phoenix, it's AT&T's testing grounds, so they are the best with absolutely zero dead zones. VZW and TMo have them here and there, with TMo being the worst.

You should be able to put just about any carrier's sim card in another phone as long as the phone is unlocked for that carrier, except for the supercheap Tracfone ones.. and even with Tracfone, you can get a "bring your own device" sim card for $1, transfer your service to that, then put it in any device.
It's actually a little tougher for VZW sims, or at least it used to be, because they don't work in Chinese or other foreign GSM-only phones. It -may- be different these days with everything being on LTE, but I'm pretty sure I still see phones that say only work on AT&T and Tmo (ie: NOT Verizon).

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Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: Nightfox to Ogg on Wed Apr 17 2024 11:57 am

those budget phone carriers don't even have a place for a SIM card. They're

That's how it was when Sprint and CDMA was still around, but that's not the case anymore. All three carriers (and most 1st world countries) now require LTE, which either uses a physical sim or an eSim... and budget phones don't yet support eSims.

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Re: Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: paulie420 to Nightfox on Wed Apr 17 2024 06:13 pm

they never got there. Its one of the reasons they went Verizon only for the

You might mean AT&T :). Verizon was still CDMA at the time and iPhones didn't support CDMA (GSM only) for a while.

VOIP on cell data used to suck, a lot.. it's a little bit better with LTE these days, but still not as solid/dependable as the regular voice cell. I mostly use Matrix for voice calls within the family. Very rarely do I have to call anyone else. The wife has a data-only plan on her phone so she uses Google Voice when calling others. Then we also have VOIP set up at the house. But, I'm paranoid so I think I will always have a voice-capable phone. It's probably all in my head, but it just feels like VOIP is so much easier to log and spy on. There are still SOME decent FCC regulations that real phone companies have to comply with.. VOIP ones do not, afaik.

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Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: Nightfox to Ogg on Thu Apr 18 2024 09:43 am

No. I had a couple of Samsung Galaxy phones with Virgin Mobile, and they

Yup, CDMA. That didn't use sims and was linked to the phone's ESN or electronic serial number. Now the device's number is called the IMEI and the sim card's number is the ICCID. Don't remember what those stand for off the top of my head atm :).

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phigan wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

Have you heard of StraightTalk? They are an MVNO on all the networks,
but you can pick AT&T specifically (what I did).

I didn't know you could choose your carrier, that's pretty cool. I
thought they were all Verizon.

Even though they're MVNOs, many still offer phone subsidies if you port
a number in. I should port the number in to get new phones every couple
of years.




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phigan wrote to paulie420 <=-

VOIP on cell data used to suck, a lot.. it's a little bit better with
LTE these days, but still not as solid/dependable as the regular voice cell. I mostly use Matrix for voice calls within the family. Very
rarely do I have to call anyone else.

I have one of those Comcast/Xfinity land lines that come in over VOIP.
Been thinking about ditching it and cutting my service down to the bare
minimum. GV for business and wifi calling through my cell phone, since
coverage is spotty here. Works, mostly, but I was a telecom manager in
a former life and I've been tempted to set up an Asterisk PBX at home.

Once a telecom manager, always a telecom manager. Work is mostly Teams
calling and Ring Central phones. We have a handful of legacy sites using
Asterisk that the network team won't support, guess who's supporting
those now? :)



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Re: Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: poindexter FORTRAN to phigan on Thu Apr 25 2024 06:44 am

I have one of those Comcast/Xfinity land lines that come in over VOIP. Been thinking about ditching it and cutting my service down to the bare minimum.

You might end up paying more.. One time, I had Comcast/Xfinity for both internet and basic cable TV. When I realized my over-the-air TV reception was actually fairly good in that location, I called Comcast to cancel the cable TV so I'd just have internet, but they said my bill would increase.

Nightfox

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Re: Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: poindexter FORTRAN to phigan on Thu Apr 25 2024 06:31 am

a number in. I should port the number in to get new phones every couple
of years.

In my experience, the companies with the supercheap phone service have very overpriced devices :). On the other hand, MVNOs like Metro often have really good deals on devices, but their service prices are high. So, you have to play the game of getting a really cheap device with paying for just one month of service, then letting the service plan expire and waiting 6 months for the phone to unlock.

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Re: Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: poindexter FORTRAN to phigan on Thu Apr 25 2024 06:44 am

a former life and I've been tempted to set up an Asterisk PBX at home.

<3 Asterisk. Been running it at home for like 20 years now :). Man, I used to have so many free incoming numbers, and several ways of at least calling toll free numbers for free (which was great for work conf calls).. they've all gone away now, unfortunately. At least I can still call home from anywhere with SIP as long as I have internets.

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Re: Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: poindexter FORTRAN to phigan on Thu Apr 25 2024 06:31 am

phigan wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

Have you heard of StraightTalk? They are an MVNO on all the networks, but you can pick AT&T specifically (what I did).

I didn't know you could choose your carrier, that's pretty cool. I
thought they were all Verizon.

Even though they're MVNOs, many still offer phone subsidies if you port
a number in. I should port the number in to get new phones every couple
of years.

I don't think you can pick your carrier anymore. i know i went from a ATT sim to tmobile a couple of years ago. I couldn't get decent 5g on my phone until i did that. now i still have that sim but they want me to go to verizon sim.
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Nightfox wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

You might end up paying more.. One time, I had Comcast/Xfinity for
both internet and basic cable TV. When I realized my over-the-air TV reception was actually fairly good in that location, I called Comcast
to cancel the cable TV so I'd just have internet, but they said my bill would increase.

Yeah, they try that. I usually insist on a price point and tell them to
find me a deal that matches that.



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phigan wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

In my experience, the companies with the supercheap phone service have very overpriced devices :). On the other hand, MVNOs like Metro often
have really good deals on devices, but their service prices are high.
So, you have to play the game of getting a really cheap device with
paying for just one month of service, then letting the service plan
expire and waiting 6 months for the phone to unlock.

If you're looking for a decent Android phone, Cricket has the Moto G
line - I picked up a Moto G5 Stylus for $130 on an upgrade, and it's a
solid mid-range phone with 5g, a couple of lenses, 128GB/6GB storage and
a stylus.

It's slow compared to my family's iPhone 12 and 14, but I need a phone
for work and to play podcasts. Camera is so-so.



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Re: Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: poindexter FORTRAN to phigan on Fri Apr 26 2024 06:41 am

a stylus.

It's slow compared to my family's iPhone 12 and 14, but I need a phone
for work and to play podcasts. Camera is so-so.

i've had motorola phones for a long time. their cameras are always not so great.
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Re: Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: poindexter FORTRAN to phigan on Fri Apr 26 2024 06:41 am

If you're looking for a decent Android phone, Cricket has the Moto G
line - I picked up a Moto G5 Stylus for $130 on an upgrade, and it's a

Personally, I'm not a fan of Moto phones. Remember "Hello Moto" ? I say "Hell no, Moto!" :) ... I did like the Motorola Atrix and the Nexus 6.. but that was about it.

I got a OnePlus Nord N10 through Metro for $60, and since then they had the Nord N30 (which a buddy of mine got) for the same price. The N10 is nice and the N30 is even snappier. The camera seems fine, but it's probably not as good as my Samsung's or Pixel 7's (or iPhone X).

I have a lot of phones.

Right now I'm typing on a Pinephone, which I compiled Syncterm on :D

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Re: Re: luckymobile, anyone?
By: phigan to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Apr 27 2024 01:45 am

I got a OnePlus Nord N10 through Metro for $60, and since then they had the Nord N30 (which a buddy of mine got) for the same price. The N10 is nice and the N30 is even snappier. The camera seems fine, but it's probably not as good as my Samsung's or Pixel 7's (or iPhone X).

I have a lot of phones.

Right now I'm typing on a Pinephone, which I compiled Syncterm on :D

why do you have a lot of phones? are you the phone man?
lord of the phones?

i have 2 phones and i hate it.
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