Straight Talk

[AquaDawg]

SW,
Verizon is not upgrading to GSM 4G (doesn't exist). ATT and T-mobile currently use W-CDMA/UMTS for most of their so called 4G ( which is not truly 4G). All carriers are upgrading to LTE (which is truly 4G) for their 4G service, and that will be the new standard going forward.

Starting this month, Verizon is going to start turning down their CDMA network as they convert it over to LTE, and it's supposed to take a couple of years to finish the conversion. Many of the phones made in the last couple of years are going to have a problem with this, and people with the problem phones are going to have to upgrade to new ones. Currently there are only 2 phones made that have the majority of all the LTE bands available: iPhone 6 and the Nexus 6. I fully expect that we are going to see a big change in that this year, especially with the new federal rules for unlocking phones going into effect next month.

[SWharton]

I am very happy I asked this question. I didn't know any of this was going on. I was considering buying a new phone(Samsung 3 or 4), currently have an Iphone 4 my daughter gave me, but will hold off until things start sorting themselves out a little more. I am on ATT so should be able to survive for a year or 2(I hope).

 

Sounds like a lot of people will be buying new phones as all this is implemented.

[RV_]

Sorry for the confusion. My Lumia 822 is a multiband phone that works just about anywhere in the world. Here is the connectivity specs and you'll see the GSM and WCDMA at the top of the list that AT&T uses. The lower actual CDMA bands are there too. This phone should handle anything Verizon had planned as of last year. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mobile/phone/lumia822/specifications/#connectivity

 

What may have confused is that Verizon did not lock the GSM bands. But did not allow unlocking of their CDMA LTE bands until in the last month for secondary providers like Straight talk. So folks could take this Verizon only Windows 8.1 phone and use it on any GSM network like T-Mobile or AT&T. Or on Straight Talk using AT&T towers.

 

Now we can use the Verizon towers with this and some other "BYOD" (Bring Your Own Device) Verizon phones on Straight Talk too.

[SWharton]

Since I have a Straight Talk phone all I would need to do to carry me forwared(temporarily) is change out the sim card if Straight Talk provides one, correct?

[RV_]

No,

Most CDMA phones do not have a Sim card, only the phones with both GSM bands, and CDMA bands, can be either AT&T or Verizon depending on the particular phone. A ST phone bought today and yesterday with a few exceptions are not 4G or LTE, just 3G. Your phone has to have the internal radios on the LTE bands.

 

None of our Galaxy 3G ST phones on Verizon had a Sim card. Only the ST phones that used T-Mobile towers or AT&T towers. Which brand and model phone do you have? Let's look it up.

[SWharton]

I have a Iphone 4 that I switched to Net 10, ATT sim card. I can no longer do some updates to my apps so I see the writing on the wall. I stopped at Walmart and looked at the Straight Talk Phones and some are ATT and some are Verizon(blue vs red map on box). It is a 3g phone. I am definitely interested in Samsung will wait all this out. I checked the pricing on unlocked phones and are we going to have sticker shock when this comes about for a while, they seem to run in $700-$800 range. I hope the pricing comes down and good phones are offered on Black Friday.

 

I see the Straight Talk Samsung S4 is 4g LTE and I figure it will be on sale next Black Friday(my planned purchase date), now all I need to determine if it is ATT or Verizon. I would like to have one phone on ATT and one phone on Verizon for max coverage. I have been impressed by the ATT coverage this last year traveling.

[RV_]

If your phone is sim card GSM model made for AT&T it cannot be changed. It has only the GSM compatible radios in it. I looked up the specs for your phone on the Apple support site and as you can see they made either a GSM, or a CDMA, none with acapability for both in that model that I can see. The Quote below is from this page http://support.apple.com/kb/SP587 Red color added by me.

 

Cellular and wireless
◾GSM model: UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
◾CDMA model: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz)
◾802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz only)
◾Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR wireless technology

 

So the Sim card for a universal phone like mine has both radios and sets of frequencies in them, and they can be used as GSM phones or CDMA phones with a Sim card change, but not both at once. Your phone is GSM only and to use Verizon towers on ST you will have to get a new phone. You just missed these for $29.99 during Cyber Monday sales week: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Straight-Talk-Samsung-Prepaid-Galaxy-Ace-Smartphone/36202742 and it is great! Because you are not used to having an easily removable battery, or a micro SDXC card slot to add your own music. It is the usual Samsung quality. They were so cheap that I bought two as I was going to switch back to Android until I could get a Verizon Windows phone. AT&T which was what I was on, is 1 bar or less here at my house. The same phone switched over to Verizon finally is always 3G out here in the boonies! LTE where available to connect to.

 

My point was not to say you should get a bargain phone but this one despite being 3G would have given you a year of getting used to Android and setting up all your accounts. I gave the second one to my son and he loves it. He had a Windows 7 phone that he broke and could not update to 8.1 anyway. Made a great Christmas gift for him.

 

There are several Samsung phones you could use as an interim that will surprise you. I had to wait for a Windows phone because few were CDMA LTE and ST compatible. The Lumia 822 is both GSM and CDMA and now on Verizon for those who want a Windows 8.1 phone. (After updating, it comes as a Windows 8. Easy)

The Galaxy Ace Style is very nice for the $150-$350 price range for those that want an Android phone.

 

My wife is keeping hers until she sees my Windows phone has no issues on Verizon ST towers. I think we can get double our money when we sell it and our two older Samsung ST phones. Or I may keep them as Internet security cameras. Yes that can be done with old phones as well.

[SWharton]

Thanks for all the info. I am slowly getting educated.

 

My plans have always been to buy a new phone next year. The Iphone 4 was an interim solution that was free. I never expected that apps for it would only update if it has IOS 8. First one failed to update due to OS, then a week later another now it is a light rainfall, this all starting happening about a week or 2 ago. If I hadn't been offered an Iphone for free I would be on a Samsung now. I don't need to worry about acclimating to Android, my tablet is Android and I can't wait to get an Android phone. I'll hang onto the Iphone as long as I can(at least until Black Friday 2015 hopefully unless I spot a super deal). Then get my Samsung.

 

We will be finishing our travels in another month or 2, then the apps on the phone are not a critical to me.

[SWharton]

Apple just announced the availability of unlocked Iphone6. Starts at $649 and upward.

[RV_]

Scratch my excitement over ST letting mte use the Verizon towers at last. Turns out the data side won't work so they are switching me back to AT&T! Shoot!

[skyking]

Apple had been selling the unlocked iPhone 5 for 2 years since I got it from Apple. Got a unlocked iPhone 6 for Christmas. Probably will be going with Verizon prepai plan. $45 per month with unlimited talk ang text, 500 Meg's of data and and if set on auto pay, comes with an extra 500 Meg's of date. You can add 3 gig of data for $20 expiring in 90 days. And you get 4glte speeds.

[RV_]

I'm going to check on that too tomorrow. I may just get it working on Verizon and see in a month if I can then bring it over to ST. See, they also allow Verizon LTE, but you get 3 GB at LTE speeds then unlimited slowed down after the first three GBs of data. I also renew my ST with a third party renewal service and in six month increments it has cost me from 33-35 dollars a month with 6 month time renewals.

[skyking]

RV, like I said, have had straight talk for the past 2 years. From what I have read on the forum people that have used the st 4g on version are not getting that high of speed. I have not got the 4g sim from st yet, but I did put wife's verizon sim in my iPhone 5 and did get 10 to 15 mg loads. Even though st is supposed to be on Verizon. St never had near performance that her iphone 5 had on voice or data. St data was no match for Verizon data anywhere.

[RV_]

Good info. I'm wondering why the press about their allowing it. Not doubting you but perhaps ST is trying to keel us from going over to Verizon. I think I'm going to go and check with a local "jail breaker" of phones and see what the shady phone folks think they can do then just give it up. I'm happy just to use the Windows phone on AT&T towers with ST if that is all I can do. I rarely connect from my phone. Email and texts don't need big speeds. The important thing is I finally got a windows phone, and ortuna.

[RV_]

OK folks,

I've been doing the Verizon Sim card until a couple of days ago. They tried but have not the experience to make the Verizon towers LTE data side, or any data work with my Lumia 822 on ST, 3G or LTE. They insisted it was allowed now but they apparently could not program a Windows phone to do it. If anyone brought over an LTE Verizon Android phone and got the Verizon sim card from Straight Talk to a bring your own device from outside of ST, not an ST purchased phone, please let me know as I'll get one for Lynn. I am very perturbed with ST on that one issue. But for folks with no need for data because they only use their phones for talk, text, and in rare circumstances email or data to check a scanned item in a store, ST is still the best buy for 3G but no video or radio or other intensive Data items.

 

My Lumia 822 is happy now with Verizon, who, despite it being a Verizon phone to begin with, and using their Verizon sim card I got when I signed up for Verizon 45 bucks a month prepay service at the Verizon company store, did the same thing for a day, and when I brought it back they had to get online with their HQ folks and after three hours, and a complete reset of the phone it worked with the Verizon card I have a feeling that if I ported my phone back to ST it would also finally work with their Verizon Sim card. But since I do not care much about data on my phone because I have 250GB at home for a limit at really high speed, I wsill stay with Verizon unless I find I am having issues with using either the 512 MB I have for $45.00, or adding $5.25 to bring it up to a full GB, I may try Straight Talk again after a couple of months with the phone already cleared from the AT&T programming from ST I had at first.

[rvpopeye]

Did my first download on my ST 3G Wireless Hotspot yesterday, around 30KB speeds ,,, hopefully I was too far from a tower..web pages were s-l-o-w too.

[ganto]

Apple had been selling the unlocked iPhone 5 for 2 years since I got it from Apple. Got a unlocked iPhone 6 for Christmas. Probably will be going with Verizon prepai plan. $45 per month with unlimited talk ang text, 500 Meg's of data and and if set on auto pay, comes with an extra 500 Meg's of date. You can add 3 gig of data for $20 expiring in 90 days. And you get 4glte speeds.

yes apple has been selling an unlocked iPhone but it's not the CDMA one it's the gsm one wich means you can run off of t mobile or att YUK

[skyking]

Ga to, it may not be cmda, it is model Apple model 1429, and have been using it with straight talk on the Verizon network for the past two years and can be used with AT&T also.

I did not go with straight talk this time, son put me on his plan at $15 per month verizon unlimited talk & text.

[RV_]

Popeye, I haven't tried the hub. Let me know if it's always slow. My now Verizon CDMA LTE phone, that a week ago was using only the GSM radio to connect to AT&T 3G towers through ST is much faster on Verizon 4G.LTE which is a given.

[rvpopeye]

The 3G mobile hotspot uses 802.11g. (the UMX-U240C hotspot device) There is a 4G device I think the model# was 288 , but they are out of stock here and have been since early December, read into that whatever you will....

 

I saw downloads of 150kb and 9kb yesterday doing my first "big" download(a 218MB Comodo AV definition update) to the Vista.

In the middle of town at my mom's house , next to a window........

 

In the first 2 weeks of light use I used about 150MB. Right now I am at about 550MB remaining of my first data card of 1GB.

You get the amount of data remaining by going to the Straighttalk website.

Not sure if I will get another 1GB/30day card @$15 or go for the 4GB/60day for $40.

 

That's what I got on it so far.

[gypsydan]

This has been a most enlightening topic,but confusing. . . . . . . I just got off the phone with ST tech support, and I can see what people mean when they say their help is "poor" to "non-existent." I asked about roaming and was told that "ST does not roam." period, But was then told if you leave the zip code where you register the phone it is considered roaming. ???? . . . . . I asked if roaming meant going outside a verizon circuit (since I have a verizon iPhone) would I be able to connect to a local GMS circuit? People on this topic say you cannot.connect to gms circuit with ST using a cdms phone. confused?

 

Then, I'm told people have gotten a new sim chip from ST which allows them to roam. Again, confused.

 

I can tell this topic can get much deeper. Thanks for any help .

[skyking]

Gpsydan, I did have a iPhone 5 model 1429, that could be used as a gsm or cmda. I used it on straight talk with the Verizon network for 2 years. I have used it all over the eastern usa and not have a problem with roaming. I have not had any problems with straight talk other than slow data. Recently (about 3 months ago) while at breakfast I checked data speed with ookla and with straightalk I was getting 1.3 mb down and .35 mb up. Friends with iPhones on Verizon data sitting at the same table were getting 4g lte speeds. This was straightalk 3G, I do understand that straightalk does claim to have 4g lte now but what I have read that it does not go no where near Verizon's data speed. I got a new iPhone 6 plus 128 gig as a Christmas gift from dear son. On the the iphone 6, at the same restaurant with Verizon data I get about 30 mbs down and about 20 plus mbs up.

In my honest opinion I would think using the Verizon prepaid would be your best bet. You get ulimited talk, and text and 500 mbs of data per month for $45 per month and with auto pay you get another 500 mbs free so you have 1 gig of data. Plus if you need more data, you can buy 3 gigs for $20 and use it for up to 90 days use. Since I have my own phone, I pay $15 per month unlimited talk and text pluse my data with Verizon. I liked straightalk for when I had it but with the new pricing with the big carriers, I do not miss straightalk.

[gypsydan]

Gpsydan, I did have a iPhone 5 model 1429, that could be used as a gsm or cmda. I used it on straight talk with the Verizon network for 2 years. I have used it all over the eastern usa and not have a problem with roaming. I have not had any problems with straight talk other than slow data. Recently (about 3 months ago) while at breakfast I checked data speed with ookla and with straightalk I was getting 1.3 mb down and .35 mb up. Friends with iPhones on Verizon data sitting at the same table were getting 4g lte speeds. This was straightalk 3G, I do understand that straightalk does claim to have 4g lte now but what I have read that it does not go no where near Verizon's data speed. I got a new iPhone 6 plus 128 gig as a Christmas gift from dear son. On the the iphone 6, at the same restaurant with Verizon data I get about 30 mbs down and about 20 plus mbs up.

In my honest opinion I would think using the Verizon prepaid would be your best bet. You get ulimited talk, and text and 500 mbs of data per month for $45 per month and with auto pay you get another 500 mbs free so you have 1 gig of data. Plus if you need more data, you can buy 3 gigs for $20 and use it for up to 90 days use. Since I have my own phone, I pay $15 per month unlimited talk and text pluse my data with Verizon. I liked straightalk for when I had it but with the new pricing with the big carriers, I do not miss straightalk.

Skyking. Thanks for your reply. I'm curious as to how you are paying $15/mo for unlimited text/talk. Is this a plan, or are you on a shared family plan? I have my own phone and called Verizon and was told it would be $60 for the unlimited text/talk on their "Loyalty Plan," so am really interested in how you were able to get the $15/mo.

I will call Apple to find out if the sim chip in the 4s auto switch's from cdma to gms when roaming, or if that is something which occurs in the ST network when I leave a Verizon cdms area.

This is an interesting situation the cell phone companies have gotten themselves into. I'm sure othes will continue to add to the conversation.

[skyking]

We own our on phones so they give a $25 discont on the family share plan with son and he works for IBM so he might be getting an additional discount. Starting with iphone 5, some were unlocked so you could use with gsm or CMDA carriers. The shared data plan is extra.

[gypsydan]

Another insight which I need clarification on. Since getting help from ST is problematic, at least understanding them is, I want to know:

1. In this thread people have talked about getting a new SIM card from ST for their iPhone - was this to unlock the iPhone?
2. Does the ST SIM card then allow you to roam between CDMA and GMS while using ST?
3. This link from Apple indicates you have to erase all data and start fresh to do an unlock. TRUE??
4. There is also the comment (see below) on the above link for #3 which indicates you need a specific carrier's SIM card before the iPhone will work. Is it the experience of users that the ST SIM card resolves the issue stated below
   • "The SIM card inserted in this iPhone does not appear to be supported. Only compatible SIM cards from a supported carrier may be used to activate iPhone. Please insert the SIM card that came with your iPhone or visit a supported carrier store."

I'm asking these questions to better understand ST before I make the jump to take themas my carrier.

 

I appreciate this thread, and any help offered.