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Comment by apawloski | Hacker News Reader

I'm in a major city (so coverage is good on most networks), but T-Mobile has a $30/mo, pay-as-you-go plan for unlimited text/data and 100 minutes of talk (which isn't a problem if you use something like Google Voice).

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I'm on this plan and the biggest issue I've run into is that while the data is "unlimited", after 5GB it's throttled to frustratingly slow 2G speeds.

I was under the impression it was 5GB 4G then 3G from there, but it is not so.

That's right. "High speed" is 3G and "4g"

Google Voice by itself uses minutes. It's not a real VOIP app[1], but more like a hack that uses google as a phone proxy.

[1] Like https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.snrblabs.g... or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.moplus.gvp...

Google Hangouts on iPhone is voip, and there are plenty of other voip apps you could use instead so you don't have to use the cellular minutes.

Whats the preferred way to get google voice working on android ?

You can install it from Play. It's straightforward.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...

It's not so straightforward if Google thinks you are not in the US.

That has always been the case, but is not so today. Google Play knows where I am as it offered the Nexus5 in Japanese Yen. Nevertheless I successsfully installed Google Voice just now.

Can you set it up? I've always been able to install the APK, but if you don't already have a GV number, it wants to send an SMS to a real phone number as part of the setup, and that number needed to be American.

As you say, cannot set it up. I guess nothing has changed.

Right, if Google doesn't think you are in the US, you won't be able to download Voice from Play. Which is really annoying if you actually are in the US...

I had to deal with this problem earlier this month, and the answer here fixed the issue for me: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/44677/how-to-chan...

I am regretting the GV port I did when I moved to the Nexus line. All my friends like to MMS/ group text and I've had to revert to the base number of my sim card to communicate with my close friends.

With regards to one of the up the stream comments, I love the T-Mobile $30/mo 100min, unlimited text, 5gb 4g plan on my Nexus 4.

The GrooveIP app allows VoIP calling through Google Voice on Android.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gvoip&hl=e...

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