Straight Talk

[gypsydan]

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.

Could you explain about the unlock process. I just wrote another response (above) about the unlocking, so maybe you can respond to it.

[SWharton]

My daughter gave us he old Iphone 4 2 years ago. I unlocked it and got a sim card from Net 10(same company as ST). I put the sim card in, phone number is on ATT according to carrierlookup.com. We registered the phone in VA and just traveled all over the US for the last 6 months. Never had a problem the entire time, had service whenever I wanted it, never dropped a call.

[gypsydan]

My daughter gave us he old Iphone 4 2 years ago. I unlocked it and got a sim card from Net 10(same company as ST). I put the sim card in, phone number is on ATT according to carrierlookup.com. We registered the phone in VA and just traveled all over the US for the last 6 months. Never had a problem the entire time, had service whenever I wanted it, never dropped a call.

Again, my question in the above 2 posts regarded how you went about unlocking. What is that process?

[SWharton]

I looked it up on Google.

 

There are kiosks in some parts of the country that for a fee will unlock your phone.

[skyking]

Gypsydan, sorry I am not familiar with the iPhone 4, if it had been on AT&T and is not under contract as Iunderstand it can be unlocked thru AT&T and the get a sim from a gsm provider that is on gsm. When I bought my iPhone 5 2 years ago, an apple model 1429, it was not locked when new. I used the iphone 5 on straight talk for 2 years. A friend is currently using the same phone with the Verizon prepaid plan.

[Ray,IN]

I was told that you can't use ST plan for using your phone as a hotspot?

The papers I had to sign said I cannot use my phone for connecting my laptop. Don't know if that relates to a hotspot though.

[gypsydan]

This must be because they want you to buy and use their ST hotspot.

[gypsydan]

ROAMING??? ST says it does not allow roaming. Yet I have read several places in this topic where users say they have traveled all over the country without a problem. I know there are many places where Verizon does not have towers. Currently when I go to these areas Verizon will switch me to roaming and I will use the local carrier.

 

I would get the ST BYOD Verizon plan, since I am currently with Verizon and have a cdma Verizon iPhone 4s. I have mentioned before being confused about ST service, since I seem to be reading conflicting stories in this thread.

 

What do current ST Verizon users experience when they are in the areas where Verizon does not have towers? Wouldn't they lose their service? So my question is, how can you travel around the country and not experience a loss of service if ST does not allow roaming?

 

Roaming seems to be the glitch with ST.

 

I'm still considering the Verizon Loyalty Plan which, with a 1 year contract, offers unlimited talk/text for $45/mo, but only 500mb of data, or $55/mo for 1gb of data. I do like the thought of getting the extra 2gb of data with ST.

 

This will be a topic I'm going to bring up at the Escapades monday morning 8:30am Maximizing Mobile Connectivity seminar. I hope many of you are going to be there, so we can connect.

[Dutch_12078]

Verizon and AT&T have broad enough direct coverage that it's entirely possible to travel extensively around the country having cell service when ever you wanted to use your phone. You may have passed through several dead or roaming areas along the way, but if you didn't happen to try your phone in one, you wouldn't know it.

[AquaDawg]

I can say for a fact that ST will not allow you to roam on the US Cellular towers in Washington and Oregon. They used to allow it several years ago, but we lost coverage on USCC towers in areas where we used to have coverage.

Another thing to think about, VZW is going to start sunsetting there CDMA towers this year. This means that 3G service will no longer be available on that tower. My local VZW field tech also told me that in some areas where they are building out new towers, they are only turning them up as 4G/LTE, no 3G/CDMA.

And as for using your phone as a hotspot, there is what ST officially tells you, and there is reality. Just be aware that like all carriers, they can sometimes not play so nice if they catch you....

[steve101]

I looked at the Verizon prepaid map at wally world and it does show prepaid voice roaming on the map but not data.

Don't know if there is a limit on usage and then you are cut off or if Straight talk roams on the same towers. I talked to a Verizon rep and he said no phones roam anymore ( as usual wrong answer from rep) I think you would have to go to a

area with Verizon prepaid roaming and check because if you ask the straight talk rep...

Steve

on edit I see wally world has a total wireless plan that looks to be the same coverage as a straight talk phone on Verizon networks' and I think owned by TracFone

Called them, no 4g at this time, said if you could get a hotspot on your phone to work it was OK, but the two I talked to were hard to understand.

$35 unlimited talk, text and 2.5 gig

$60 two phones both unlimited talk, text and 5 gig shared data

looks like a good price to me, may work for some. Maybe someone knows about this plan

[gypsydan]

I looked at the Verizon prepaid map at wally world and it does show prepaid voice roaming on the map but not data.

Don't know if there is a limit on usage and then you are cut off or if Straight talk roams on the same towers. I talked to a Verizon rep and he said no phones roam anymore ( as usual wrong answer from rep) I think you would have to go to a

area with Verizon prepaid roaming and check because if you ask the straight talk rep...

Steve

on edit I see wally world has a total wireless plan that looks to be the same coverage as a straight talk phone on Verizon networks' and I think owned by TracFone

Called them, no 4g at this time, said if you could get a hotspot on your phone to work it was OK, but the two I talked to were hard to understand.

$35 unlimited talk, text and 2.5 gig

$60 two phones both unlimited talk, text and 5 gig shared data

looks like a good price to me, may work for some. Maybe someone knows about this plan

I was just on a trip down south, so i do know that Verizon roams. But ST apparently doesn't, for they are leasing their lines from Verizon, and not from the various places you go where Verizon does not have towers, which is the reason ST does not have roaming.

[RV_]

New info. Verizon prepaid $45.00 plan now comes with unlimited talk and text and long distance but now has 1 GB of data at no extra charge. I would have gone back to ST when I, to date, only get 3G speeds on a Verizon once exclusive LTE capable world phone that got the same speed when I used it on AT&T towers using the GSM band. I had it working pretty well doing all the programming myself to get messaging working which the ST folks did not know how to do. I found forums online about how to get the 822 working fine with GSM on ST. I am now on the CDMA and LTE Verizon Sim.

 

We are now officially a mixed marriage. My Significant Harassment, Lynda, has remained with Straight Talk, and I officially transferred to Verizon directly. My issue with ST was not that I could not get 4G but that they could not get my phone, a recently purchased Lumia 822 which was a Verizon Exclusive Phone when it first came out in 2013. It even has Verizon and their logo on the bottom, see it here: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Lumia+822&FORM=HDRSC2#view=detail&id=D0268AD55510EE8CA7F49D0083FFFEEFEFD6603B&selectedIndex=3

 

I have been on Verizon itself for two months now. I pay for my third month tomorrow. I can afford the contract plan but don't give a hoot about having the latest and greatest cell phone and gimmicks. That is the only way folks would get a $600.00 cell phone for 99 bucks or whatever. What astounds me is that they have no idea that they are paying for the phone either way but the extra costs are terrible unless you buy for a family of more than two from what I can see. We have been prepaid for the last two years since my SH finally consented to let me get rid of her flip phone with no data or even messaging capability, and now she could not do without it! She is a messaging fanatic with the sons and Gkids. I still use my Mic rather than type on the virtual kb despite being pretty good at what Windows phones call shape writing. I forget what the Samsung phone called it when you slide from letter to letter to type faster. http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/How-to/wp8/settings-and-personalization/typing-shortcuts

 

Anyway I find that when I went to the Verizon store they could not get my Verizon exclusive phone to work with Verizon. Seems they had no real clue about Windows 8.1, since contract Verizon Windows phone customers are just recently getting Denim, the newest 8.1 with Cortana etc. I went to a company store and they had a guy or girl on the phone for hours trying to get it to work. I finally told them to just go ahead and reset it and they said they would save and reprogram my contacts in it. I already had my pics on One Drive. They kept me waiting for another hour while they had my phone in the back supposedly restoring my contacts. They came out all heartbroken because she could not restore my Windows phone contacts.

 

Verizon, face to face, in their stores is no better than ST folks in the Orient! Their only advantage is that I can understand the clerk clearly saying they will have to call HQ can I wait? But I do appreciate the local English. So now I find the real issue with the act of buying my own phone new. I have a Lumia warranty but no tech support that I have really gotten into. I did set up a Nokia account and now can use the Verizon extras on my phone but those are seemingly only easy for Contract customers.

 

I was unpleasantly surprised to find that the contract customers were also getting the run around for all but paying their bills or upgrading their contract phones. So tomorrow I am going to the store to renew for another month but only after they get 4G working like it should on my phone, one of their last year models Verizon exclusive LTE phones.

 

Straight talk at least has the multiple months purchase discounts. 6 months is 41.66 per month for six months plus tax, and $41.996 three months plus tax. I buy my ST unlimited cards from a third party online re-seller of ST for $35/mo for 6 mo ($210.00,) and $36.60 a month for three mo. ($110.00) I'm glad I took the risk, but will not disclose my source because inevitably someone will get self-screwed or have issues no matter what is recommended, or how much success I've had with whatever. I do due diligence due, to do a deal I'm doing, being due to it being more than 5 bucks. Under five I'll get it locally and pay the trip tax of high fuel prices, and sales taxes. It is right at 15 miles round trip to Base/town to buy stuff. Since I get 24 mpg on my HHR, I round off and consider it to be half a gallon of gas minimum. At today's prices that's an added cost for gas that is twice what it should be, from the oil companies of $1.08. Si I may, just because we don't travel much anymore, go back to ST. That is once I get Verizon to fix the programming so it gets Verizon 4G Then I can test ST on this phone. I gotta tell ya, if one or the other offered superior customer service with a knowledgeable person in each location, that would be the tie breaker for me. But the slightly cheaper price of ST for us makes it worth switching back if they make good on their 4G promise on Verizon towers.