TextNow versus Ring+ (3G, remove, automatically, websites)

[PacoMartin]

I have Ring+ which provides unlimited calling and texting on Sprint's cellular networkfor $10 a month. I am unhappy with the quality of the sound and the fact that to order a phone on their website costs at least $80-$110 for a new phone.

Textnow is offering the same service for $14 a month, and new phones start at about $8 and $15. I would gladly pay another $4 a month if the sound is better.

Does anyone have this service?

[ground_pounder]

i heard people say the sound quality is horrible even when there on sprint using a sprint phone

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by PacoMartin

I have Ring+ which provides unlimited calling and texting on Sprint's cellular networkfor $10 a month. I am unhappy with the quality of the sound and the fact that to order a phone on their website costs at least $80-$110 for a new phone.

Textnow is offering the same service for $14 a month, and new phones start at about $8 and $15. I would gladly pay another $4 a month if the sound is better.

Does anyone have this service?

DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO TEXTNOW!

You do so at your own peril. They have a HARD cap of 170 MB per day and they use data for everything. So you're only getting around 3 to 4 hours a day of phone calls before they cut you off. They claim they fall back to Sprint cellular. They do not. They route calls over a data connection provided by Sprint. It is not the same thing. Once they cut you off for that month, you have to upgrade to a higher package to get additional data, or you have to use WiFi. And it is post pay. They take it out of your account automatically.

I speak from personal experience. Do not, again, DO NOT, deal with TextNow. The voice quality is okay but that is not the issue. I stuck with them for around a year and a half. Had to call them and wait on hold for 15 minutes just to cancel the service. Refusal or return of payment is not enough to cancel the account. Porting the number out, simply results in a new phone number being assigned. And this is the best part, when you cancel, you do not get until the end of the month to enjoy service. The service is deauthorized before you hang up the phone with the representative. I do have a credit of $3 with them, in the event that I want to use their app to make international calls. If you have a phone service provider, the TextNow app is not a problem, for WiFI calling. But if you need a signal; you really do not want to deal with them in that way. Find an old phone you're not longer using and use them WiFI only.

The phones are dirt cheap for a reason.

[blktoptrvl]

Many years ago, my sister would sign up for almost anything that was "free" or at a big "discount."

Then right after she signed herself up, she would enter my email or cell number into their systems so she could contact me for "free." The upshot of this was that I would start getting text, MMS, and/or SMS advertising spam in my inbox.

I asked her after that - not to enter my information on any websites and asked her to just contact me directly through her email account or phone if she needed to contact me. After getting a few spammers out of my life, things returned to normal. That rule about not distributing my personal information had been working well for years.

Today (or sometime recently), my sister started using TextNow and sent a Christmas message to all in the family through this service. On my phone I started getting messages about how to use my new TextNow service. The first instruction I sent was to #leave - in other words disconnect my number from the service.

But of course, they now have my number.

So, the question is, is this a service that actually honors requests to be unsubscribed, or am I in for a new round of spam???

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by blktoptrvl

Many years ago, my sister would sign up for almost anything that was "free" or at a big "discount."

Then right after she signed herself up, she would enter my email or cell number into their systems so she could contact me for "free." The upshot of this was that I would start getting text, MMS, and/or SMS advertising spam in my inbox.

I asked her after that - not to enter my information on any websites and asked her to just contact me directly through her email account or phone if she needed to contact me. After getting a few spammers out of my life, things returned to normal. That rule about not distributing my personal information had been working well for years.

Today (or sometime recently), my sister started using TextNow and sent a Christmas message to all in the family through this service. On my phone I started getting messages about how to use my new TextNow service. The first instruction I sent was to #leave - in other words disconnect my number from the service.

But of course, they now have my number.

So, the question is, is this a service that actually honors requests to be unsubscribed, or am I in for a new round of spam???

TextNow is both a standalone app and a MVNO. You can purchase phones through them, in which case the app requires root to remove, or you can just use their app on any phone. I doubt you'd have issues getting unsubscribed as they do have a legitimate business model. They offer calls over data through Sprint as a backup, but they prefer users use WiFi. For those just using the free app, they will offer calls over data, in the event that you do not have access to WiFi. Not sure how well it works on 2G, but 3G should be fine. They should have provided you with a new number for use. If you never use the app, they'll kick you off of the service and you'll have to get a new number. I believe this happens if you go without signing in for two months. I've got a number now that won't go away because people keep texting/calling me at that number. Sometimes I forward the calls but even that keeps the number alive.

[lesleyfranklin]

Textnow app allows FREE calls to numbers in Brazil, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.