Database Users

T-Mobile Tech Support Really Sucks...

Man I really hate T-Mobile's tech support. I called them to ask a simple question:
If I cancel my Total Internet Package which is just 20$ more on by phone bill that I don't really need to be spending, will I be charged for using the WIFI on my phone when I am at home?
I have Comcast cable internet at home and can pick up the router's signal with my MDA even with the sim card out and browse the internet.
They turned around and told me that I would be charged per Kb if I canceled my Total Internet Package and then used my WIFI to pick up my home internet service.
By the way this was T-Mobile's Windows Mobile Department that told me this...
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Ok now I have 2 questions for all of you.
Is what T-mobile told me true?
Is there a cheaper way to get unlimited GPRS internet than T-Mobile's $19.99 Total Internet package?
The only time I use my GPRS is to update WeatherPanel and when I am using the OZ Instant Messenger. All other time I spend on the internet is with WIFI turned on and GPRS turned off.
Please, all help will be greatly appreciated and well received.
Thanks in advance, your friendly neighborhood computer geek, Dan.

Well I hope I can help answer your question somewhat.
I do not pay for the GPRS service through Tmobile, I try not to use it at all. If I pull data through it then I am charged. But if i use a wifi hotspot then Tmobile will not charge me. In truth they should have no way of telling if and when I use a WiFi connection. The reason the rep told you this was really a twisting of the truth. He can probably get away with telling you this because it will cut your access to Tmobile HotSpots which you get access to with the data plan. Sneaky sneaky bastards, you should post this little tale on http://consumerist.com/ .
To answer the second if Tmobile is your carrier then NO I dont believe you can get GPRS data from another carrier. Unless your phone is sim unlocked and you choose to use another carrier to get your data through, but this will need you to switch sims out. Either way your gonna pay for it. I would hold out till 1-2 quarter of 2008 Tmobile will start its HSDPA role out, providing upwards of 3Mbps for data. Of course you will need a phone capable of HSDPA, but such is life.
If I am uninformed of another method maybe someone here will be so kind as to enlighten us.

ritalin said:
Well I hope I can help answer your question somewhat.
I do not pay for the GPRS service through Tmobile, I try not to use it at all. If I pull data through it then I am charged. But if i use a wifi hotspot then Tmobile will not charge me. In truth they should have no way of telling if and when I use a WiFi connection. The reason the rep told you this was really a twisting of the truth. He can probably get away with telling you this because it will cut your access to Tmobile HotSpots which you get access to with the data plan. Sneaky sneaky bastards, you should post this little tale on http://consumerist.com/ .
To answer the second if Tmobile is your carrier then NO I dont believe you can get GPRS data from another carrier. Unless your phone is sim unlocked and you choose to use another carrier to get your data through, but this will need you to switch sims out. Either way your gonna pay for it. I would hold out till 1-2 quarter of 2008 Tmobile will start its HSDPA role out, providing upwards of 3Mbps for data. Of course you will need a phone capable of HSDPA, but such is life.
If I am uninformed of another method maybe someone here will be so kind as to enlighten us.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I figured T-Mobile was full of S**T... I know I can access the internet via WIFI even without a sim card in the device. I only use it at home or in hospitals anyway. Like I said though, the GPRS for me, is just for WeatherPanel. That's why I am trying to find a cheaper way...
Thank you for your help though. Not the answer I was hoping for but very grateful non the less.
Dan.

You won't get charged for using wifi. If weather panel is all you really use GPRS for then go to the 5.99 plan. That's what I use and have no problem using weather panel or even browsing the web. The other day I even streamed video over it, although GPRS is way too slow to be any use for that but I wanted to see if it worked. The only apps that I know of that do have problems are mostly IM apps since they have most of the ports that those programs use blocked on the 5.99 plan.
Just realized that you said that you use OZ IM, I'm not sure if that will work or not, I can't seem to get it to work with WM6.

You will not be charged per kilobyte, whoever told you that was either new or retarded. The only difference you will see is that your instant messaging will go thru text messages instead of wifi, charging you per message, to log in, to log out, etc. That's due to the way the OZ instant messaging is written. The 5.99 has been working for a lot of people, but it was a glitch in the system that is slowly being fixed market by market, so don't get upset if it doesn't work for you or if it suddenly stops working, as it was never meant to work. If you connect thru wifi, you won't pay anything as it's your connection thru wifi to your phone's wifi, and the T-Mobile network is nowhere in the mix. Again, the Instant Messaging will be billed as text messages.

johnny12times said:
You will not be charged per kilobyte, whoever told you that was either new or retarded. The only difference you will see is that your instant messaging will go thru text messages instead of wifi, charging you per message, to log in, to log out, etc. That's due to the way the OZ instant messaging is written. The 5.99 has been working for a lot of people, but it was a glitch in the system that is slowly being fixed market by market, so don't get upset if it doesn't work for you or if it suddenly stops working, as it was never meant to work. If you connect thru wifi, you won't pay anything as it's your connection thru wifi to your phone's wifi, and the T-Mobile network is nowhere in the mix. Again, the Instant Messaging will be billed as text messages.
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Click to collapse
That is really good to know. Can you tell me or direct me to a thread that explains the real difference between the 5.99 plan and the 19.99 Total Internet Package?

i don't know about the question you had, but I've had the other extreme as far as Tmo's customer support/tech support... always been great to me. Even after 2 refurbs.

Whoever told you that you'd be charged using Wi-Fi was either full of it or was ASSUMING you would then be accessing T-Mo services...why would you? Just use whatever service you use from home.
I use my MDA with Wi-Fi in my house ALL the time and it has NOTHING to do with T-Mobile. It's not EDGE/GPRS--it's a totally different technology, just like hooking your wireless laptop up to your home router.
Furthermore, you can use the Wi-Fi with T-Mobile Hot Spots if you have that subscription with ANY Wi-Fi computer you have--no reason to have more than one Hot Spot account--many hotels now have it, not just Starbucks.
T-Mobile NOW forces you to pay for Hot Spots with Internet Service as a bundle but they are different technologies.
The Internet Service is EDGE/GPRS and that is a CELLULAR service and is programmed into your SIM chip. I use that too. My MDA can hook into eMail and web sites without a Wi-Fi connection via the cell modem. But it's not nearly as fast.
I actually have 2 SIM chips with this service--I got one for my old IPAQ6315, but that's in the MDA. The one in the MDA is in my notebook computer--it has a Cingular Sony Ericsson cellular modem that I got the unlock code for, and put the chip from the MDA in there--I ALSO can use my notebook with EDGE/GPRS, or Wi-Fi (or even RJ45) connections.
I have the eMail for my regular eMail routed to my MDA--no messing with another address. So it's working a lot like a Blackberry as well.
Finally, you asked if there's a cheaper alternative: There is. It's called "T-Zones" and it's T-Mo's WAP service, for $6 or $7/month. It gives you the limited access you get on cell phones, and you already have it with the fancier internet access--click on T-Zones and you'll see it.
Generally, with T-Mo, service is a waste of time till you get to Level 2. But if you get to Level 3, then you get the techs that really know their business. The PDA support can be similar. But you got to jump through a lot of hoops to reach that level and that can take 30-45 minutes on the phone. Be persistent.

dharvey4651 said:
That is really good to know. Can you tell me or direct me to a thread that explains the real difference between the 5.99 plan and the 19.99 Total Internet Package?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the 19.99 plan gives you your actual connection to the GPRS/EDGE(and in 4 test markets 3G! T-Mobile bought a whole lot of 3g network up recently.) network (internet2.voicestream.com), by connecting thru this route you are given access to the ports required to get to full websites, as well as email servers, etc.
the 5.99 plan is your basic wap access, t-zones and other wap sites. It's what is used by motorola's, samsungs, basic phones. Gives you access to your account information from T-Mobile's wap sites (but not on an mda running less than wm6 and having had the tzones applett installed), accuweather's website, and other wap websites. By connecting thru the wap APN, you are directed thru a filter that doesn't allow you full access to normal websites.
Now, T-Mobile has a glitch in their system where every now and then you get 5.99 internet and your number isn't put into the filter, so the ports that were supposed to be closed off to you never were, and you can browse and email just as if you had the 19.99 feature. The only problem? They know of the glitch and are closing it market by market, which has been taking the better part of 7 months now, but it's not that far from being finished.
Almost all programs you have installed on the mda that are third party will default to what ever internet connection is available, however, the OZ instant messaging program from the MDA and almost all other T-Mobile PDA's is written specifically to use the SMS (short message system) as the next backup if you aren't connected thru the internet2.voicestream.com, or blackberry.net apn if you are using a blackberry, so if you are connected thru wifi, then you will be charged text for each message.
Hope this helps, if not, let me know.
Johnny

Avoiding Data Charges

My wife and I are going to Europe for a month this summer and we would like to bring our phones to use as portable wifi devices. What is the best way to guarantee that we get no data/text messaging/phone charges?
Ideally we could just remove the sim card but I heard you can't use the device when you do this (even for wifi). Is this true even if we have sim unlocked the device? Do we have to install ADP1 for this trip to do this?
I also read that we could change the APN to something invalid and that would prevent data charges but what if someone text messages us?
Thanks

As long as your device is activated, as in you are not prompted to sign into your Google account when you turn on the phone, you will be fine. Just take the SIM out of the phone when you arrive.

you could always disable the radios. There are ways to turn off cell radios and leave wifi or even turn of data all together but leave the cell radio on.

Rekna said:
My wife and I are going to Europe for a month this summer and we would like to bring our phones to use as portable wifi devices. What is the best way to guarantee that we get no data/text messaging/phone charges?
Ideally we could just remove the sim card but I heard you can't use the device when you do this (even for wifi). Is this true even if we have sim unlocked the device? Do we have to install ADP1 for this trip to do this?
I also read that we could change the APN to something invalid and that would prevent data charges but what if someone text messages us?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's an app on the market that lets you disable/enable your APN settings with a simple tap or two. Search for APN.

it is called APNDroid, its brilliant! Really easy to use. One click to disable APN's, click again to re-enable them!

I'm on prepaid right now so I'm trying to not use data at all. However, even with apndroid and turning off all 3g/data, I was still losing money in my prepaid account. The only thing that I could do to stop the random charges is to uninstall any apps that require internet access (last.fm, skype, etc).
Just a warning for anyone travelling - it looks like 3rd party apps can access data even if you disable it on the g1. You can google reports of people getting charged crazy amounts of roaming data charges even after turning off their data.

I had problem last month where i unlocked my g1 to use with the 3 network, worked great and i was very happy. I did not realise however that the g1 was for whatever reason using the 3g internet rather than my wifi, for some reason or another it continuously was charging me for data i thought i was getting form my wifi! over £100 the g1 cost me in that little incident.
My advice to you is either take out your sim or use the apn blocker. I would not even put your sim in when in another country!

Does anyone see any fault in this plan of mine to avoid data charges after buying the phone (I'm going to get it today or tomorrow).
The phone is already unlocked.
1) Borrow my friend's sim with a data plan. and register phone
2) Do not fill in correct APN info upon setup (so I can't be charged data)
3) Put in my sim
4) Spend 10 hours reading these forums and trying to install custom firmware/tinkering with the phone etc.
5) Download APNdroid, run it 24/7, then enjoy my dataless phone while I browse wifi all night downloading cool apps and tweaking my phone.

Sorry this is a bit later but for anyone who is looking for an asnwere to this i found one -
Here is how you turn off data service on your G1:
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1. Use Anycut to create a shortcut to "Testing"
2. Click on Testing.
3. Click on Phone Information
4. Hit Menu button
5. Click on More
6. Click on Disable data connection
This turns off all data access. Note that GPRS service switches to "disconnected".
Now you should have a phone that does voice calls, but no data access.
Wi-fi still works which is great.

try txtFeeder.com to avoid data charges
I am not sure what your planning doing with your phone, but you should try txtFeeder.com - a free mobile feed aggregator to avoid data charges. It'll let you keep up with news, weather, or whatever site you normally read, on your mobile, without paying data charges. it works really well.

try txtFeeder.com to avoid data charges
I am not sure what your planning doing with your phone, but you should try txtFeeder.com - a free mobile feed aggregator to avoid data charges. It'll let you keep up with news, weather, or whatever site you normally read, on your mobile, without paying data charges. it works really well.

Best way to disable 3G/data connection on Vibrant?

Hey guys! Just got my vibrant today, it is a beautiful phone. Going to root it and remove all the bloatware in a second here
Quick question for you guys-my current plan with T-Mobile does not include data. In the few hours I've owned the Vibrant, it has already sucked down several MBs of data...what is the best way to disable the data connection altogether? I only want to use data over wifi, nothing else.
Some googling revealed the app 'APNdroid'-is this still the best way to disable data, or is there a more current solution for the Vibrant?
Thanks!

That's odd. What plan are you on that allows you to access data without having a data plan?
To access data, I assume you'd need T-Zones at the very least (unless there's something even older that I'm forgetting). In which case, you will be nagged to upgrade to the 'Android Data Plan' after about 6-12 hours.
So confused.

I have a grandfathered myfaves plan. I definitely don't have data, was pretty confused when my phone started using data on the drive home. It completed a Google search for me and the 3g icon popped up in the notification bar. Hmmm....

Well if it helps any, I know for Bell Canada at least, even if you don't have a plan with a data addition, you can still access data (except at a really ludicrous rate).
(Or actually, this might be the case only because bell always put's it's browsers and junk on phones, even its feature phones)

Call T-Mobile and ask for a data block.

[Q] Only 3G for MMS

Is this possible?
Any chance of me being able to ONLY use my 3G connection to send and receive MMS messages but NOT FOR INTERNET BROWSING,APPS AND WIDGETS ETC? Operator costs are very high in my country so this would be great! Thanks in advance if anyone can help me out

why are you doing this .......lmao

Sounds like something tasker may be able to do. But might be a bit specific.
Just looked and there's no 3g switch. Sounds like a fair enough request to me. 3g for something you want done straight away. 2g for all the background stuff.
Sorry I can't help more
Sent from my HD2 running Darkstone Android

Not sure if this is what you want, but APNDroid will disable 3G data connection, but will still let you send and receive MMS.
I use it most of the time as the 3g data always on uses a lot of battery for no reason.
It's free from the market

the_scotsman said:
Not sure if this is what you want, but APNDroid will disable 3G data connection, but will still let you send and receive MMS.
I use it most of the time as the 3g data always on uses a lot of battery for no reason.
It's free from the market
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that's what I'm looking for. Well it's not for battery reasons, I'm charged € 4,99/hour and € 0,50/100 kB. So that's really expensive. I really hate the government for letting the operators get away with this.

In the settings menu simply activate mobile data when you wish to use it for MMS and disable it to avoid racking up charges. I don't use data either, wifi only. I am in a wifi area 90% of my day.

[Q] Constant 3G traffic

Hello,
Its driving me nuts and I can't find the answer anywhere.
I bought an Ideos X5 and I have been trying every ROM i can get my hands on.
In all of em I find the same issue that I cannot resolve.
The phone is downloading and uploading stuff ALL the time. I do mean all the time.
If Data is enabled then the 3G, or H is up there in the staus connecting all the time.
Recently I tried MIUI and it comes with a firewall which I used to block every app i have but with no result. its still there.
I thought it could be because of the GPS being aided but I disabled that too.
Any idea? My data plan is being consumed by god knows what and its happening in every ROM available.

swayjd said:
Hello,
Its driving me nuts and I can't find the answer anywhere.
I bought an Ideos X5 and I have been trying every ROM i can get my hands on.
In all of em I find the same issue that I cannot resolve.
The phone is downloading and uploading stuff ALL the time. I do mean all the time.
If Data is enabled then the 3G, or H is up there in the staus connecting all the time.
Recently I tried MIUI and it comes with a firewall which I used to block every app i have but with no result. its still there.
I thought it could be because of the GPS being aided but I disabled that too.
Any idea? My data plan is being consumed by god knows what and its happening in every ROM available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The fact that the icon is present at the top doesn't mean that it's doing traffic. That is just like the wifi icon, to let you know that you have 3G/HSDPA connection established. If you don't have any applications like sync, email, mms, browsing, games that go online etc, than your data consumption should be something like 100kbytes/day. I've got a 500 mb plan and with emails on and applications downloaded I never go over 70-80mb the whole month... So, I believe that whatever application you've installed on the phone, that is consuming your data plan.
BTW, this is a smartphone, which was designed to stay online...so you may have to look into upgrading the data plan.

Try droidwall at market. It can block selective app connect internet.

katu2006 said:
The fact that the icon is present at the top doesn't mean that it's doing traffic. That is just like the wifi icon, to let you know that you have 3G/HSDPA connection established. If you don't have any applications like sync, email, mms, browsing, games that go online etc, than your data consumption should be something like 100kbytes/day. I've got a 500 mb plan and with emails on and applications downloaded I never go over 70-80mb the whole month... So, I believe that whatever application you've installed on the phone, that is consuming your data plan.
BTW, this is a smartphone, which was designed to stay online...so you may have to look into upgrading the data plan.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh.... I thought that the fact that it was there it meant that it was connecting.
that clears it up then! i installed 3g whatchdog in the meanwhile though just to be safe!
edit, but wait a second, my friends at work have androids and its not always up there. the symbol I mean.