[ellett]

The economics can turn out quite differently if you're doing a family. I have a T-Mobile family plan with shared 1000 minutes, unlimited messaging, mobile-to-mobile and nights and weekends, and 2GB 4G data for each line. For 4 lines it works out to $30 per line per month.

[ellett]

The Obihai Obi110 is also quite a trick. For $50 you can connect a Google Voice number directly to your home phones and also set up an app on your mobile devices that connects to the Obi over the 'net places calls. This is really cool if you travel overseas because you can connect to the Obi using a data connection and then place a call as if you were at home. No international charges!

[JohnPaulRojas]

Kadidelhopper, on 10 November 2011 - 10:00 AM, said:

Worthless article. Nobody in their right mind would do any of that at this point.

What do you mean at this point? Did on contract Unlimited Data + voice plans drop? For $60 + whatever the carrier wants to tack to your bill you usually have a 2Gig or higher limit. The article tells you how to use a data-centric plan that actually costs $30 if you buy the SIM at Walmart. So you have 5GB of 4G data and beyond that 3G data. Both of which are much more than sufficient for VOIP calls. Actually there are other ways to use Google Voice as your main number so your phone rings and you answer using VOIP. The 100 min would be good for when data fails for some reason, or you're off coverage. Once set up, the use should be nearly as seamless as using the cell company which uses VOIP anyhow.

While in coverage you can save at least $30 a month, and change to whatever service comes about at any time, because you're not tied to a contract. You do have have to invest in some VOIP plan which can easily be had for $5 or less a month for unlimited US calls, with Skype for instance. Cheaper, or maybe even free VOIP could be possible.

Tell me at what 'point' you reached where you can have unlimited data and calls for less than $60 for a single user. Of course if you can bring at least 3 people together into a commitment you can get it a little cheaper, but I doubt it'd get as low as $30 once you take in account tax and fees.

This post has been edited by JohnPaulRojas: 23 December 2011 - 12:45 PM

[Rustydogg]

dk3d, on 09 November 2011 - 07:58 PM, said:

Ever try to get a smartphone with a "No Voice Plan" option.

Doesn't exist.

The closest I got to going all VOIP was cancelling my iphone/voice/data plan. Keep my iphone, get a MiFi (data only) for $35 a month and use Toktumi $15 a month. I kept a watch on my data use and rarely went over 300 megs a month, and this was also using my iphone regular data the way I normally use my iphone.

Worked great... except, the Mifi battery lasted about 5 hours left alone and about 2 hours under use.

And of course I had to lug around and charge two devices.

But it did work and effectively I could make calls and do data stuff for $50 a month.

That being said, I opted to go back to a voice/data service (Sprint) for those main two reasons (1) two devices and (2) Batter life

Both of those are easy to solve: Force companies like AT&T and Verizon and Sprint to offer a data only plan for smart phones (just like they do for tablets).

But it'll never happen... anytime soon.

I know that this article was written a couple months back but even then the T-mobile Prepaid $30/month - Unlim Text, 5GB Data*, 100 Voice Mins was already a month old. Basically you get 5gigs of 4G data and after that unlimited data at 2G speeds. If you had read the article and paid attention the author based part of this article on it! Sure it includes 100 minutes of voice but you don't hate to use it. The important part here is 5 gigs of Data at 3G-4G speeds. I'm using it now with google voice, groove ip and skype. The 100 minutes are almost worthless to me. So what you said will never happen any soon happened a month before you wrote it.