4 ms·

Buying a Google Nexus One Unlocked is a Terrible Experience

12 points by epi0Bauqu 17y ago

jrockway 17y ago
This really has nothing to do with the Nexus One, or even Google Voice. It's simply a restriction T-Mobile places on the kind of account he has. Yeah, welcome to cell-phone service in the US. (I'm shocked we even have GSM providers here at all.) Personally, I think this problem falls completely outside the scope of Google. He wants people calling a non-Google Voice number to get to his Google Voice voicemail. This is a feature that has to be provided by the network, because it needs to work when your phone is off. T-Mobile does not provide this feature unless you pay them money. He doesn't want to pay them money, so he doesn't get the feature. It's an annoying arbitrary limitation (because T-Mobile's network supports this just fine; call my "real" T-Mobile number and you get my Google Voice voicemail), but it's not Google's fault. It's just how cell phone service works in the US; it's based around subsidized devices or really cheap featureless devices. Nobody has a featureful unsubsidized smartphone, so it's not a case that the providers handle. They disable features on the cheap subsidized phones because they want to upsell you to a subsidized phone, guaranteeing revenue for 2 years. Anyway, if the author is setting up a new number for this phone, he can avoid the whole problem by only telling the new number to Google. Everyone else can call his Google Voice number directly, and then it doesn't matter where his real voicemail forwards to. (I stopped telling everyone my real number about 6 months ago, and now it gets no calls.) Sadly, short of moving to another country, I don't think there's any way the author can get what he wants. (AT&T doesn't even allow the possibility of data use unless you have a multi-year contract.) Edit: Since the author makes the inevitable iPhone comparison, it's worth pointing out that "Buying an unlocked iPhone is an impossible experience."
- ars 17y ago
  What about caller-id? Can you make it show your google voice number?
  - jrockway 17y ago
    That would be the whole point.
  - arantius 17y ago
    The Google Voice app on any android phone will do this. The original post is about one really specific feature, completely under T-Mobile's control (and restriction in this case), and has nothing to do with Google or the Nexus or Google Voice, or anything else mentioned.
- tomkinstinch 17y ago
  "He wants people calling a non-Google Voice number to get to his Google Voice voicemail. This is a feature that has to be provided by the network, because it needs to work when your phone is off." There isn't a telephone "star" (*) code for setting this?
  - ajross 17y ago
    There is (and in fact that's exactly the mechanism Google Voice is using), but it's not supported on the per-month accounts, apparently. You can only make it work if you have a standard account, which requires a two-year contract.
kylec 17y ago
The author mentions that you still need a contract if you supply the device - is this true? I thought the whole point of the Even More Plus plan was to provide monthly service without a contract.
- randallsquared 17y ago
  It is, but it's not exactly the same. They provide prepaid service (which Even More Plus is), but they seem to prefer that you sign a contract.
jonknee 17y ago
It sounds like his trouble is with T-Mobile not supporting voicemail forwarding on FlexPlay plans, not anything to do with the Nexus One or even any unlocked phone. It sucks, but T-Mobile not supporting call forwarding on FlexPlay plans isn't exactly a secret, he could have easily found this out before buying the phone (or before contacting support): http://support.t-mobile.com/doc/tm23888.xml http://support.t-mobile.com/doc/tm23888.xml
- randallsquared 17y ago
  If it had occurred to him to look. Without already knowing, I can't think of any reason he should have figured out he should search for call forwarding options on FlexPay... the default assumption would be that everything would work fine, wouldn't it?
  - jonknee 17y ago
    Perhaps, but then after spending two minutes Googling and finding out the network he chose didn't support a feature he wants, he could have just called and gotten an RMA. Lesson learned and only a little time/money wasted. I fail to see how this is the fault of his phone being unlocked, Google, Android or even T-Mobile. No phone in the world would have done what he wanted with the plan he got. It's like saying buying a Google Nexus One unlocked is a terrible experience because there's no free weekend calling.
    - randallsquared 17y ago
      I agree that this has nothing to do with the phone or Google.
grandalf 17y ago
I was thinking that I'd be able to buy a Nexus One and just seamlessly use Google Voice w/o having all the messy forwarding, etc. I guess not.
- jrockway 17y ago
  Don't tell people your phone's real number. Then you won't have to forward those calls.
  - daeken 17y ago
    This is what I do on my Droid. Everything goes through Google Voice, period.
  - grandalf 17y ago
    I'm talking about the sms forwarding and the way it dials an inbound call when you use google voice to dial out... would have thought Google would merge in google voice features so when I received the nexus one in the mail I'd "log in" with my google credentials and the phone would then have my gv number.
    - jrockway 17y ago
      Yeah, that would be nice. But it's two clicks and 10 keypresses in the web interface to setup a new phone, so it's not a major loss.
- jonknee 17y ago
  You won't be able to do that with any phone on any carrier--the network has to be involved for voicemail. If your device is off or unreachable it needs to know where to send the call. T-Mobile does forwarding just fine on the normal plans though.
  - grandalf 17y ago
    Why does the network need to be involved for voicemail? If I don't answer or my phone is off and I get a call to my google voice number, it still sends the caller to voicemail...
Sephr 17y ago
I have Google Voice forwarding working perfectly on AT&T on my Nexus One. The problem must definitely be that the FlexPay plan has restricted voicemail, as everyone else is saying.
theBobMcCormick 17y ago
I don't understand the point of this article. It sounds like the problem has nothing to do with the Nexus One, and everything to do with limitations in the TMobile pre-paid plans. Wouldn't he have the same problems trying to use Google Voice on any phone while using the TMobile pre-paid plans?

12 points by epi0Bauqu 17y ago

This really has nothing to do with the Nexus One, or even Google Voice. It's simply a restriction T-Mobile places on the kind of account he has. Yeah, welcome to cell-phone service in the US. (I'm shocked we even have GSM providers here at all.) Personally, I think this problem falls completely outside the scope of Google. He wants people calling a non-Google Voice number to get to his Google Voice voicemail. This is a feature that has to be provided by the network, because it needs to work when your phone is off. T-Mobile does not provide this feature unless you pay them money. He doesn't want to pay them money, so he doesn't get the feature. It's an annoying arbitrary limitation (because T-Mobile's network supports this just fine; call my "real" T-Mobile number and you get my Google Voice voicemail), but it's not Google's fault. It's just how cell phone service works in the US; it's based around subsidized devices or really cheap featureless devices. Nobody has a featureful unsubsidized smartphone, so it's not a case that the providers handle. They disable features on the cheap subsidized phones because they want to upsell you to a subsidized phone, guaranteeing revenue for 2 years. Anyway, if the author is setting up a new number for this phone, he can avoid the whole problem by only telling the new number to Google. Everyone else can call his Google Voice number directly, and then it doesn't matter where his real voicemail forwards to. (I stopped telling everyone my real number about 6 months ago, and now it gets no calls.) Sadly, short of moving to another country, I don't think there's any way the author can get what he wants. (AT&T doesn't even allow the possibility of data use unless you have a multi-year contract.) Edit: Since the author makes the inevitable iPhone comparison, it's worth pointing out that "Buying an unlocked iPhone is an impossible experience."

ars 17y ago
What about caller-id? Can you make it show your google voice number?
- jrockway 17y ago
  That would be the whole point.
- arantius 17y ago
  The Google Voice app on any android phone will do this. The original post is about one really specific feature, completely under T-Mobile's control (and restriction in this case), and has nothing to do with Google or the Nexus or Google Voice, or anything else mentioned.
tomkinstinch 17y ago
"He wants people calling a non-Google Voice number to get to his Google Voice voicemail. This is a feature that has to be provided by the network, because it needs to work when your phone is off." There isn't a telephone "star" (*) code for setting this?
- ajross 17y ago
  There is (and in fact that's exactly the mechanism Google Voice is using), but it's not supported on the per-month accounts, apparently. You can only make it work if you have a standard account, which requires a two-year contract.

kylec 17y ago

The author mentions that you still need a contract if you supply the device - is this true? I thought the whole point of the Even More Plus plan was to provide monthly service without a contract.

randallsquared 17y ago
It is, but it's not exactly the same. They provide prepaid service (which Even More Plus is), but they seem to prefer that you sign a contract.

jonknee 17y ago

It sounds like his trouble is with T-Mobile not supporting voicemail forwarding on FlexPlay plans, not anything to do with the Nexus One or even any unlocked phone. It sucks, but T-Mobile not supporting call forwarding on FlexPlay plans isn't exactly a secret, he could have easily found this out before buying the phone (or before contacting support): http://support.t-mobile.com/doc/tm23888.xml http://support.t-mobile.com/doc/tm23888.xml

randallsquared 17y ago
If it had occurred to him to look. Without already knowing, I can't think of any reason he should have figured out he should search for call forwarding options on FlexPay... the default assumption would be that everything would work fine, wouldn't it?
- jonknee 17y ago
  Perhaps, but then after spending two minutes Googling and finding out the network he chose didn't support a feature he wants, he could have just called and gotten an RMA. Lesson learned and only a little time/money wasted. I fail to see how this is the fault of his phone being unlocked, Google, Android or even T-Mobile. No phone in the world would have done what he wanted with the plan he got. It's like saying buying a Google Nexus One unlocked is a terrible experience because there's no free weekend calling.
  - randallsquared 17y ago
    I agree that this has nothing to do with the phone or Google.

grandalf 17y ago

I was thinking that I'd be able to buy a Nexus One and just seamlessly use Google Voice w/o having all the messy forwarding, etc. I guess not.

jrockway 17y ago
Don't tell people your phone's real number. Then you won't have to forward those calls.
- daeken 17y ago
  This is what I do on my Droid. Everything goes through Google Voice, period.
- grandalf 17y ago
  I'm talking about the sms forwarding and the way it dials an inbound call when you use google voice to dial out... would have thought Google would merge in google voice features so when I received the nexus one in the mail I'd "log in" with my google credentials and the phone would then have my gv number.
  - jrockway 17y ago
    Yeah, that would be nice. But it's two clicks and 10 keypresses in the web interface to setup a new phone, so it's not a major loss.
jonknee 17y ago
You won't be able to do that with any phone on any carrier--the network has to be involved for voicemail. If your device is off or unreachable it needs to know where to send the call. T-Mobile does forwarding just fine on the normal plans though.
- grandalf 17y ago
  Why does the network need to be involved for voicemail? If I don't answer or my phone is off and I get a call to my google voice number, it still sends the caller to voicemail...

Sephr 17y ago

I have Google Voice forwarding working perfectly on AT&T on my Nexus One. The problem must definitely be that the FlexPay plan has restricted voicemail, as everyone else is saying.

theBobMcCormick 17y ago

I don't understand the point of this article. It sounds like the problem has nothing to do with the Nexus One, and everything to do with limitations in the TMobile pre-paid plans. Wouldn't he have the same problems trying to use Google Voice on any phone while using the TMobile pre-paid plans?