Hijinks Inc.

30 Days Without Voice Service

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Aaron Nelsen

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AT&TYesterday marked day number thirty since I posted my walk-through on how to use your iPad 3G ‘s Micro SIM in an iPhone for data only service, and more importantly its been thirty days since I last used AT&T’s voice service to make a call. While I’ve been using only VoIP to make calls and send texts, I did leave my service active until June 1st just incase things didn’t work very well. But as of the first, I am no longer paying for AT&T voice service.

As you might have concluded from the canceling of my service I’m happy to report, that at least in my neck of the woods, using data only with Google Voice, GV Mobile, IPKall, Backgrounder, and Acrobits Softphone has been a smashing success. While I admit that it’s not as straight forward to place calls, it’s still easy to receive them. Which fits quite nicely with my phone usage.

Overall call quality was surprisingly good, naturally it worked better over WiFI, but it was more than passible over 3G. Over the course of those 30 days I only used 291 minutes of talk time, but I sent over 1,000 texts and used over 16GBs of data streaming content. I also installed MyWi to use my iPhone as a hotspot so my iPad could still browse the net from anywhere I had 3G coverage.

How my setup works is simple(ish). IPKall provides a SIP number for my Google Voice account to call, which rings to Acrobits Softphone, so if I use GV Mobile to dial a number it then rings my iPhone via that IPKall SIP number. Along those same lines, anytime someone calls my Google Voice number the call rings through to my iPhone using Acrobits Softphone.  You can find instructions on how to setup SIP calling in this post.

Texting is handle through Mail.app as I have Google Voice forward my texts to my email. For a more real time texting experience I used Boxcar configured with my Gmail account to push notifications of text messages and new voicemails. I can also use GV Mobile or Google Voice’s own website to send texts from my phone.

I did try all of this without jailbreaking my iPhone, and while it works, I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s a bit more complicated to do things like make calls or even answer them (opening Softphone is rather slow). Plus, jailbreaking was necessary in my case since I wanted to run Softphone in the background and completely remove Apple’s Phone.app from the phone so it wouldn’t continue running and using memory (be advised, this removes your ability to call E911 in an emergency).

I will admit this option isn’t quite as appealing since AT&T decided to change their iPad data plans, but for those lucky enough to still have unlimited data it might be worth a try. I’ll likely post another update in 30 days or so, as I refine the process.

Comments

27 responses to “30 Days Without Voice Service”

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  2. JohnSFO Avatar
    JohnSFO

    Very cool…thanks for updating us after 30 days. Will you be trying it out on the iPhone 4 when they hit the streets? It’s my goal to get an iPhone 4 up and running with the iPad SIM for data only service (along with Whistle Phone and Text Plus opened in the background with multi-tasking in iOS4).

    1. Aaron Nelsen Avatar
      Aaron Nelsen

      I’d love to try it out on the iPhone 4, but I have no plans to buy one as of yet. So I might borrow one for a day or two to see if it works.

      Just remember, you’ll have to wait for the developers to add multitasking support to both those apps.

  3. luckyjason Avatar
    luckyjason

    I have taken the giant leap with you! I have google voice/gizmo5 for calls w/ acrobits softphone, and notifo for notification of text messages. I’ve also used quite a bit of skype too, may do a skypein once skype goes multitasking under iOS4. I’ve had a few hiccups here and there, but for the most part, it works like a dream. $30 for unlimited data/VoIP is perfect.

    Are you using the g.729 codec on acrobits softphone?

  4. JohnSFO Avatar
    JohnSFO

    Ah, I didn’t realize that about multitasking support. Hopefully they’ll see the upside of it and update their apps. They both seem like committed companies, so maybe it won’t take too long.

    So out of curiosity you’re not worried that AT&T will notice that you’re still using the iPhone after canceling your voice plan? My fear is that they’ll discontinue all data service (including the iPad) if they get in a snit over usage rules.

    1. luckyjason Avatar
      luckyjason

      i closed my ATT account as soon as I activated the iPad SIM. I had the same cell phone number for a decade. I’ve paid ATT over $100 a month since, the 1st iphone came out, I’m glad I’ve finally got them over the barrel now! I’ve been using my Google Voice for the past 6 months exclusively and using acrobits softphone since february. I used 30 mins of voice the last month of service, but 500 mins of VOIP. This last month i used 1080 of VOIP! yeah! I didn’t calculate my data usage. I probably should have, but don’t care since it’s unlimited.

      1. JohnSFO Avatar
        JohnSFO

        So you don’t think AT&T will figure out that you’re using an iPad data SIM in an iPhone? It’s only been a month since the iPad came out. What if they start noticing and then cut your service? Or do they think the SIM is still in the iPad?

        1. luckyjason Avatar
          luckyjason

          it would be difficult for ATT to prove anything, Since I am using proper network settings for an iPad. The micro-sim was activated in an ipad, and currently being used in an iphone. From the network point of view, they shouldn’t care.

        2. TigerOnRice Avatar
          TigerOnRice

          I totally agree with LuckyJason. Once you signup for the monthly data service via ipad, the bill will just repeats every month. As long you don’t do anything that triggers your phone to let them know you don’t have a voice plan like making a regular call, I doubt they will ever know.

  5. TigerOnRice Avatar
    TigerOnRice

    You’re amazing.. You saved me from being robbed by AT&T. You explained it very well.. Thanks ALOTTTTT!!!!

    I tried using Skype in conjunction with google voice and it seem to work pretty well. The only thing is that Skype cost me an extra 10 bucks a month. But for 40 bucks a month still a hell of a deal, don’t you think?

    One more thing… I am going to upgrade my 3GS to iphone 4 with ios4 without contract (I know people ;), do you think the unlockit.co.nz APN changer will work like how it does with 3GS 3.1.3?

  6. TigerOnRice Avatar
    TigerOnRice

    I just tried Boxcar, it is awesome!!! Boxcar, Skype, Google Voice for total 40 bucks a month with unlimited data!!! Awesome and almost perfect!!! My only problem is trying to get boxcar to push me when someone call and hangup before reaching my voice mail… just in case I forgot to run skype that morning.

  7. apatel87 Avatar
    apatel87

    Was there any way to port your old number to GV or something? I have done the same exact thing you have but I wanted to use my old number if that was possible. Do you know anyway to do this. I have had the same number for 8 years and i would have to send it to a lot of people if i got a new one.
    Also, is there any app that combines both SIP functionality as well as GV functionality. I use the GV mobile app but then always switch to the acrobits when i get that incoming call from GV. Is there an all in one solution?

    1. Aaron Nelsen Avatar
      Aaron Nelsen

      Not yet, but Google is working on that feature.

      Sadly no, though I’m considering trying my hand at writing one.

      1. apatel87 Avatar
        apatel87

        I didn’t know that google was working on forwarding existing phone numbers. That’s great. Do you have a link for that?

        I contacted Sean kovacs the maker of gv mobile. I wanted to see if he could add a script to his app to make it an all in one app. I’ll let you know if he replies. Thanks!

  8. roberto Avatar
    roberto

    Does this work with a 3GS?
    You know, you could always port your number to vitelity or flowroute to avoid the extra step that is google voice. Shorter chain=less latency.
    Also try investing on a G729 license within the Acrobits App.

    1. Aaron Nelsen Avatar
      Aaron Nelsen

      Yes, this works on a 3GS.

  9. Week in Review for June 13-19 – Hijinks Inc.

    […] 30 Days Without Voice Service […]

  10. apatel87 Avatar
    apatel87

    Hey Aaron, are you having any trouble using this method with 4.0? I thought the multitasking would make this easier but every time I use Acrobits or Nimbizz itstill tries to log in every time and doesnt resume where I left off like backgrounder did. I cant install backgrounder on 4.0. So every time GV mobile tries to call my gizmo account on Acrobits it doesnt go through because the program isnt actively running. Have you encountered that?

    1. Aaron Nelsen Avatar
      Aaron Nelsen

      As I’ve pointed out in previous posts/comments the apps themselves need to be updated by the developers to take advantage of the multitasking (since it’s not really multitasking in the purest sense).

      Have you setup Push Notifications for incoming calls with Acrobits? That would at least allow you to answer GV Mobiles calls to your Gizmo account.

  11. JohnSFO Avatar
    JohnSFO

    There’s one thing I’m still not totally clear on. Can I move an activated iPad SIM to a deactivated 3GS phone (like one I might buy off CL or eBay that has its original SIM card taken out)? Or does it have to be a phone currently in an active contract (at least to start)?

    Or to put it another way: can I buy someone’s 3GS (after they’ve disabled it to move on to iP4) and get the data up and running with my active iPad data card?

    Thanks!

    1. TigerOnRice Avatar
      TigerOnRice

      Yes, it will totally work!!! As long as the ipad sim is activated with a plan, you can stick it into pretty much any iphone 3GS phone you want. The phone doesn’t have to be unlock or jailbreak because the APN changer does it directly from the wifi internet. Contracts have nothing to do with this.. GL

      1. JohnSFO Avatar
        JohnSFO

        Hey thanks! I guess I better start shopping for a 3GS. I’m hoping the insane CL and eBay prices will start to dip a little now that the i4 is out. Did you ever find out if the APN changer works on i4 with OS4?

        1. Aaron Nelsen Avatar
          Aaron Nelsen

          I have tested the APN changer only with iOS 4, not on the iPhone 4 yet. But I don’t see a reason why it wouldn’t work.

          1. JohnSFO Avatar
            JohnSFO

            About that APN changer. How reliant is the iPhone to the NZ unlock-it site after changes have been made? Will data service be disrupted if that website goes down or disappears entirely?

          2. Aaron Nelsen Avatar
            Aaron Nelsen

            You download the APN profile from the site just once, so even if the site goes down your APN settings stay changed until you choose to delete the APN profile off your phone.

          3. JohnSFO Avatar
            JohnSFO

            Cool, thanks!

  12. 60 Days Without Voice Service | Hijinks Inc.

    […] my last update, I’ve used 803 minutes of talk time and 649 text messages. 90% of my calls were incoming, so […]

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