Anybody use Straight Talk Wireless?

"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678) 05/19/2016 at 08:14 • Filed to: None

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I have just bought an unlocked GSM phone (Sony Xperia Z3 Compact) and so I will be leaving my current wireless carrier (Virgin Mobile USA). Basically I am looking to go to any US carrier that will allow me to bring my phone and activate it on that service. This leaves me between AT&T and Tmobile, along with all of the MVNO’s that operate with their service. Since their coverage is a bit more widespread, I like the idea of going with AT&T. I definitely am not going postpaid and so there are quite a few prepaid options out there. After looking into a few, I have found Straight Talk to be the best option. It operates on the full AT&T network with no data speed limiting and allows for the normal roaming that postpaid customers get. With them, I can get 5GB of data (plus unlimited talk/text like all carriers give now) for $45 a month (or less if I do 3, 6, or 12 month packages). I currently pay $35 a month for 2.5 GB so its an appreciable upgrade, especially since Sprint (the owner of VM) is rather crappy for service.

Anyways, does anybody else out there use Straight Talk for their cell service? Just curious if there is anything egregiously wrong with it that I am missing. Seems like a good deal to me. I definitely wont ever use more than 2-3 gigs of data in a month so its a lot of data for me.

TractorPillow > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/19/2016 at 08:28

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Yep. Switched from Virgin to straight talk as well, except my new phone is on the Verizon network. No issues. Very easy to use and never had any problems.

. . > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/19/2016 at 08:32

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Wait, carrier-locked phones are still a thing? Last phone with a sim-lock I bought was a Samsung Omnia back in 2008.

Also, there are carriers that won’t just let you use the phone you already have? What the hell.

Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/19/2016 at 08:33

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Ironically, my son and I just ran speedtest comparisons between his phone and mine this weekend (he’s on Straight Talk, I’m o TMo). Straight Talk says they don’t limit speed, but I get 26Mbps down/16 up on LTE with TMobile. Running same test to same server from same physical location, granted different phone and carrier, he got .01 down/1 up, with twice the ping. Admittedly, I’m running a newer phone, but my 3 year old Nexus 4 would’ve beat those numbers quite handily at 3g vs 3g.

Just Googled a bit, and found a tomshardware speed comparison from September last year that confirms our unscientific results. StraightTalk is bottom of the heap by a large margin in speed.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-mobile…

Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever > . . 05/19/2016 at 08:45

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We’ve got two different mobile phone network types here, GSM vs CDMA (think PC vs Mac/Apple). Some phones handle both network types, but CDMA only phones just flat out won’t work on a GSM network (no SIM chip in a CDMA, all done via hardware) and vice versa. Our devices are mostly still network locked, as well (I think). I had to beg TMobile to unlock my phone years ago so I could use a PlusGSM sim while overseas without having to buy another phone. Thats a big reason I’ve bought my last three phones from Google directly: no SIM lock to a certain carrier.

whiskeybusiness NOW A DANGER TO CROWDS NEAR YOU > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/19/2016 at 09:19

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Run. I recently received a check from a class action suit about Straight Talk not delivering what I paid for. They’ll throttle and eventually completely cut their unlimited data if you consistently use more than a gig or two.

coelacanthist > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/19/2016 at 09:21

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As long as you never need customer service, you should be fine. They jacked up the process of switching my old phone number over. Took days to straighten out while dealing with the worst offshore call centers I have ever encountered. This was several years ago to be fair.

spanfucker retire bitch > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/19/2016 at 09:30

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Straight Talk can suck a dick. I hated them when I was with them like 3 years ago.

Look up Cricket if you’re looking for an MVNO with AT&T’s network.

. . > Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever 05/19/2016 at 09:37

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Huh, thanks. For some reason I thought CDMA was mostly deprecated by now.

Birddog > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/19/2016 at 09:49

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I haven’t checked Straight Talk. Yet. I’m currently on Iwireless (Tmo) and 45 days of unlimited 4G LTE, Talk and Txt is $45.

I was going to drop them but at a Buck a day I can’t yet.

torque > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/19/2016 at 09:56

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I’d recommend checking out Ting or Republic Wireless, both low budget pay as you go plans that are very flexible and there’s a pretty wide range of unlocked phones you can bring with you

Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever > . . 05/19/2016 at 10:21

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Verizon and Sprint still run CDMA, unfortunately. I prefer GSM for ease of use/international compatibility.

My speed3 is happy > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/19/2016 at 10:25

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I use them. They’re fine. Although I don’t use a lot of data, less than a gigabyte a month.

Make sure you sign up for autopay on their website and save $2 a month, woot.

When I get a new Nexus next year, I’ll switch to Google Project Fi.

AntiSpeed > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/19/2016 at 10:43

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I use them. No complaints from me except that I was with them before they implemented data caps and now they do, so, boo hiss. But it was great when I was bouncing back between here and Europe and I could cancel auto-renew and replace it with my EU simcard.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > whiskeybusiness NOW A DANGER TO CROWDS NEAR YOU 05/19/2016 at 11:17

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Even if I have the 5GB plan, they will throttle early is what you are saying? I am perfectly fine with being throttled after 5GB, they clearly state that in the terms of service.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > My speed3 is happy 05/19/2016 at 11:18

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What is Google Project Fi?

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > spanfucker retire bitch 05/19/2016 at 11:20

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Cricket has a max speed of 8 mbps (even before you hit your data limit) and it doesn't have roaming. I figure the $10 a month extra to get roaming included and no artificial speed limit would be ideal. I know 8 mbps is plenty fast for normal use but I would find it valuable to download things faster when needed.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever 05/19/2016 at 11:22

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Hmm that seems odd. It seems like it should just be exactly the same as regular At&T since it is one of their sim cards. That is confusing how different it is on there.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > torque 05/19/2016 at 11:24

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They both run on T-Mobile though right? Based on the coverage maps, AT&T definitely covers more of the areas I frequent. A lot more of the desolate, wilderness areas still have signal whereas t-mo doesn’t. I am thinking the maps apply to MVNOs as well.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > TractorPillow 05/19/2016 at 11:24

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Seems like anything is an upgrade from Virgin lol

Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/19/2016 at 11:24

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I’m guessing AT&T throttles bandwidth to “piggyback” carriers that use their network, either that or StraightTalk themselves cap it to mitigate payments to AT&T. Hilariously, about an hour after running the test, my son got a text advising him he’d not yet reached the cap on his data, so it should’ve been running full speed.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > . . 05/19/2016 at 11:28

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Hah you must not be from the US then! Yeah, its a pretty bleak present situation for wireless company choices here. And the major carriers definitely prefer to have SIM locks in place (on GSM) or use CDMA which doesn’t even use a SIM. Most of the GSM stuff though you can buy an unlocked phone and then you can move about assuming you don’t have a contract. There are still a ton of people stuck in 2-year postpaid contracts but the prepaid no-contract versions are getting much better.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever 05/19/2016 at 11:32

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Hmm they must not be doing it above board then. Whereas Cricket is just being open about it. I know that any MVNO for Verizon is publicly speed limited but I guess its not so clear for AT&T. I wish all of these companies would be upfront and honest about all of this stuff, all I have to go on is hearsay on forums...

spanfucker retire bitch > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/19/2016 at 11:34

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Straight Talk absolutely throttles data and they won’t tell you about it either.

Cricket is at least up front with you about it. Plus I took advantage of a one-time offer they were doing and got 20GB of data for 55 a month. So I’m set, lol.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > spanfucker retire bitch 05/19/2016 at 12:10

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I feel like there is no good option for AT&T prepaid. It seems like T-mo is the way to go for actual speeds. The only concern I have is coverage maps but actual internet speeds on a daily basis are probably more useful than having service on a ski mountain or while hiking someplace. But yeah if I actually had a use for 20GB, that would be a hell of a steal!

My speed3 is happy > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/19/2016 at 12:12

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Google it :)

https://fi.google.com/about/?u=0

I know someone on it, and he says it is great.

spanfucker retire bitch > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/19/2016 at 12:27

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T-Mobile is great if you can actually get coverage. I thought I’d be fine too since I spent most of my time in areas that had coverage.

However then a friend of mine moved out to Batavia and you have to take a nice windy, two-lane road through a swamp with no street lamps. During the winter with very icy roads, I hated having no signal out there. Literally nothing, not a single bar. I either had blazing fast LTE speeds, or EDGE or absolutely nothing. It just wasn’t worth it for me.

Your needs might differ.

whiskeybusiness NOW A DANGER TO CROWDS NEAR YOU > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/19/2016 at 14:51

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That was always my experience, who knows if they’ve changed that tactic.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Birddog 05/19/2016 at 23:08

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There are a whole bunch of T-mobile MVNOs out there that I have never heard of. I guess the only way to find out if one will work is to give it a try. Do they have any issues with bringing my own device? Anything odd about them I should know about?

Birddog > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/19/2016 at 23:28

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I haven’t had one issue with them in four years of Pre-paid service. And they do allow you to bring your own.

There was an issue with the crappy phone I had at one point. It was a Galaxy R and wouldn’t work in Dubuque. When I got my Nexus 5 no more issues.

DarrenMR > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/20/2016 at 00:01

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My secret shame, I sold phones for walmart for 4 1/2 years.

Straight talk can be fantastic if you never have any problems. Its cheap, you can get good service, BYOP. But Ive seen them do all sorts of F ups. Randomly taking peoples numbers away, randomly canceling accounts and deleting all records. Randomly deactivating sim cards, then promising replacements, only to either not actually send one out, or send out the wrong kind.

torque > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/20/2016 at 14:31

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Republic Wireless only uses Sprint’s network right now, though they’re supposed to be adding a second network soon (yet to be announced who that is).

On the + side, super cheap plans, average user is $13 and change per month. Their phones are set up to use WiFi calling and really intended for people that have wifi available more (when/where they want to make a call) more often than not

On the - side, their phones are set up specific to use Republic & more limited options

Ting Wireless - has 6? tiered plans, they also use sprint’s network, but they also use 1 or more other networks b/c they leverage a GSM network as well

On the + side (both GSM & CDMA networks available) therefore more device options.

On the - side, more expensive (on average $23 and change) than Republic

Both (obviously) are still super cheap compared to the big 4 providers

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > torque 05/20/2016 at 19:52

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Well yeah super cheap is nice but I can afford at least a little bit more for useful data. I don’t want to spend as much as the big guys but a solid $40 plan with a few Gb of data through AT&T or T-mobile are what I’m looking for. Ting is one I want to look into though for sure.