DEAL Free Cell Svc + Free SIP Svc

[wardmundy]

SORRY. THIS DEAL HAS EXPIRED. Nerd Vittles article with less appealing deal will be out on Monday.

You must have Sprint service in your neck of the woods to take advantage of this offer!!!

With a compatible Sprint or BoostMobile PrePaid Phone, here's what you get:

1,000 U.S. talk minutes every month FREE
1,000 U.S. text messages every month FREE
1 GB of non-roaming data every month FREE
Free SIP connection that uses your bucket of minutes (can be used on softphone, SIP phone, or as an Asterisk SIP trunk)

What does it cost? A $20 deposit with NO RECURRING CHARGES unless...

Your deposit will be used to offset the costs of these additional services

Calls outside the U.S. (e.g. Canada is 3 cents/min.)
MMS messages @ 4 cents each
Overages in calls, messages, or data

WARNING: The following steps MUST be done in order or you will end up not being able to use the phone!!

Obtaining a Phone

Run, don't walk to your nearest Radio Shack or Best Buy or WalMart NOW
Purchase a Sprint or BoostMobile Prepaid Phone (we have tested with $50 LG Tribute and $130 LG Stylo shown above)
BEFORE opening the box, verify the MEID (on bottom of box) at this link: http://nerd.bz/nvringplus
If it flunks, return the phone unopened for a refund

Setting Up Your Account

Sign up for a RingPlus Don Budge account before 3 p.m. EST tomorrow (Saturday, 2/6)
Enter your MEID (DEC) and ICC ID when prompted
Pay your $20 deposit
Log into your account and choose Manage Device
Write down your MSID (it's also your phone number) and MSL

Setting Up Your Phone

Only after you have a phone number showing Active, unbox and turn on your phone
Go through the basic setup by choosing Language and activating a WiFi network connection
A PRL update will be pushed to the phone automatically and phone will reboot
Check in Settings -> General -> About Phone -> Status and see if you have a phone number
If not, open the Phone app and enter: ##72786# and dial. Phone will reboot and you'll get another PRL update
Recheck for phone number and you should be good to go.

 

[wardmundy]

An excellent review of the LG Stylo is available here.

 

[islandtech]

How to disable the RingPlus Radio ?

Resurrected my old LG Optimus V
http://nerdvittles.com/?p=722
on RingPlus

 

[Hometech]

Hey Ward can I use this Walmart phone Virgin Mobile?
Virgin Mobile Data Done Right LG Tribute 2 Smart
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Virgin-Mobile-Data-Done-Right-LG-Tribute-2-Smartphone/45863472tphone

Dont know if its Locked to Virgin, I know that use the sprint Network though.

 

[wardmundy]

How to disable the RingPlus Radio ?

Resurrected my old LG Optimus V
http://nerdvittles.com/?p=722
on RingPlus

Can't disable it on the free plans, but you can choose your music, and that makes most of the ads go away...

 

[wardmundy]

Hey Ward can I use this Walmart phone Virgin Mobile?
Virgin Mobile Data Done Right LG Tribute 2 Smart
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Virgin-Mobile-Data-Done-Right-LG-Tribute-2-Smartphone/45863472tphone

Dont know if its Locked to Virgin, I know that use the sprint Network though.

Haven't tested a Virgin in a very long time. Run her through the MEID tester and see what you get.

 

[Hometech]

Haven't tested a Virgin in a very long time. Run her through the MEID tester and see what you get.

Thanks Ward, I was just at the Walmart and that's what I did. I entered their numbers in the web page on ring plus no go...tried Virgin and Boost Mobile they are Locked and are not allowed to join the ringplus deal. Darn!

 

[wardmundy]

@Hometech: Try a Sprint store or a Radio Shack with a Sprint store. They apparently don't prelock the phones. We tested several of them in our local RS with good results.

 

[islandtech]

SIP Trunk can't make or receive calls (PiaF Green) using FluidWiFi credentials and your trunk example from the PDF.
Tried using a register string and get the same results

 

[randy7376]

@wardmundy

Thanks for ithis, Ward! I just signed up a few minutes ago.

I recently (just yesterday) resurrected a failed rooting of my LG LS720 Optimus F3 which was originally on Virgin Mobile. The resurrection basically left it stock with no apparent carrier. I hadn't planned on doing anything with the phone until I saw your post, this morning.

I think it took me all of 15 minutes to check the IMEI, get set-up, and make a test call. This will make a good back-up phone or family member loaner!

As expected, the data connection is awful - about 110 kbps down. I live pretty much in a "hole" with respect to anything Sprint. It was one of the reasons I switched to Verizon early last year.

I don't know where you come up with this stuff, but keep up the great work!

 

[tycho]

Been using RingPlus since last June. Originally signed up for a free plan, that got upgraded to a free plan, that got upgraded (maybe in August) to a reeeeeely great free plan: 1000/1000/1000 ("Future 3") with $5 top-ups.

It has become my daily-driver cell phone, but it is not at all glitch-free. Think of it as the "Cloud-at-Cost" of cell phone service. Outages are not uncommon; and the high latency in calls is, for me, very annoying (perhaps because of my use of Google Voice forwarding to the cell, but that's how I roll; have for years; and I ain't gonna change because R+ can't handle it).

Still, "great value." I have a Spark-capable original LG Volt (a Sprint Prepaid device) on the service. Data is always almost flawless (but, sadly, with low throughput at my home even though fast almost everywhere else). Texts work mostly reliably but sometimes just quit for a period of time.

(A similar phone on FreedomPop nets me 1.5GB/month -- after engaging in "freedom friends" and inter-account data gift shenanigans) of free Sprint Spark LTE).

 

[wardmundy]

@tycho: Cloud@Cost of cellphone service is a pretty good description. The SIP functionality is awesome, but it's now been dead for more than a day. Wouldn't want to stake my business on it, but it's another great sandbox. I'm assuming they don't apply topups unless and until your account runs out of funds. Correct??

 

[wardmundy]

FYI: The SIP gateway (known as FluidCall in RingPlus lingo) is down at the moment. ETA for normal operation is Monday. More info here.

We also discovered another little trick. If you happen to have an old cellphone lying around that can pass the MEID test, you need not actually activate the phone. You can merely activate the RingPlus plan of your choice using that MEID (ICC ID not required) and use just the RingPlus SIP gateway with a SIP phone, softphone, or Asterisk trunk of your choosing. You still get a DID assigned in your area code. Makes for a dirt cheap backup trunk without ever using the cellphone.

 

[tycho]

@tycho: Cloud@Cost of cellphone service is a pretty good description. The SIP functionality is awesome, but it's now been dead for more than a day. Wouldn't want to stake my business on it, but it's another great sandbox. I'm assuming they don't apply topups unless and until your account runs out of funds. Correct??

Correct: they don't topup your account until you reach the amount specified for the particular plan that you have. The rules tend to change from plan to plan, but mine (and many) say I must have a "non zero balance," and in my case if I reach zero they will auto-top-me-up $5 plus lots of taxes and a few fees. $5 ends up costing me $6.26.

But: not really worried. I believe I first gave them $5+ in August. Out of that I paid the then $.99 for an ESN change to move to the Volt that I had purchased. The only other charges deducted have been for the 3 MMS I have received (which cost $.04/ea.) My account currently stands at $3.89...

 

[tycho]

FYI: The SIP gateway (known as FluidCall in RingPlus lingo) is down at the moment. ETA for normal operation is Monday. More info here.

We also discovered another little trick. If you happen to have an old cellphone lying around that can pass the MEID test, you need not actually activate the phone. You can merely activate the RingPlus plan of your choice using that MEID (ICC ID not required) and use just the RingPlus SIP gateway with a SIP phone, softphone, or Asterisk trunk of your choosing. You still get a DID assigned in your area code. Makes for a dirt cheap backup trunk without ever using the cellphone.

And this is what I have done with my "other" R+ line/account.

When I started down this road I used an old Virgin Mobile LG Optimus V, a cast off from my girlfriend. When I snagged that lovely 1000/1000/1000 $5 topup plan, I purchased a Volt, new, from Bestbuy, for $40. I paid the $.99 to move the Volt to the tasty new plan. That left the Optimus V unused. I put it on what was then called the "totally free" plan -- why not, eh? But then later I was able to -- again, for free -- move the Optimus V to the "VIP Free Plan." That plan comes with 200 minutes, 120 MB and 70 texts, plus the local DID. That's the account I've been using with FluidCall and the SIP gateway.

 

[Hometech]

I tried yesterday to find a phone that would pass the ring plus check but no luck with new phones. I will keep looking at garage sales and flea markets hopefully will find one may be they will run the super deal again?
Thanks Ward for keeping a sharp eye out for the fantastic deals!

 

[wardmundy]

Did you try a Radio Shack? All of theirs seemed to work.

 

[tycho]

Guys, let me mention one more possible approach to this opportunity:

You can almost always get -some- kind of free plan. Right now I see the "Truly Free 2" on offer. If you get that plan (which includes 125 minutes, 50 texts and 15MB) you have a free DID and 2 hours of SIP calling per month.
If you want more of anything you can:

(1) Use "overages" at 2 cents per minute or MB (not great but nevertheless totally a la carte/PAYGO),

Or you can:

(2) Purchase monthly expiring minute/data bundles in varying amounts and at varying prices.

It also seems that the free "Pepper" plan is still up and has been for as long as I have looked. DID + 250 minutes (4+ hours!) +500 texts and 10MB data per month with this "top up" provision: positive minimum balance required; auto-topup of $5 if you hit zero.

I have collected my girlfriend's old sprint phones -- she has always used Sprint. They all work on R+ as account-holders.

 

[Hometech]

Radio shacks are closed out of business here.

 

[wardmundy]