Topic 'Re: Straight Talk' in forum '' - dslreports.com

Re: Straight Talk

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 08:23:27 EDT

BiggA posted : Most of their Android phones are on Sprint, so it would suck. However, they have one on Native Verizon, and two on AT&T, including roaming partners. Easily Googleable what's what.

Re: Straight Talk

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 21:46:11 EDT

Rob_ posted : How is their coverage in rural areas? I need a phone with more memory but, according to the coverage maps, the android coverage areas are very limited.

-Rob

Re: Straight Talk

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:39:25 EDT

medbuyer posted :

said by r81984:

I dont get why cell phones are so expensive.
Cell service went live in like 1981.
The provider spends nothing on content as the content is free (talking to friends, and internet).
There are no expensive wires ran all around town and towers can handle more customers than ever.
Towers and antennas, fiber drops to the towers, power, are all already in place. All the provider has to do is upgrade equipment every now and then which is pennies for the number of people the equipment can support.

But yet cell service costs just as much as cabletv which has to pay for all of its content.
It just does not make any sense.
We lease the spectrum to these companies for cheap and in return they sell us service with like 1000% margins on it.

except when users saturate the connections and complain about why it isn't fast or telcos isnt upgrading it and all that....

all of that costs money...they're running a business which sadly sometimes can be a disappointment but it's their business which you're subscribing to...

Re: Straight Talk

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 20:13:24 EDT

gwhall007 posted : I'm sorry, but you are absolutely incorrect when you assume that providing wireless service is inexpensive. Do you know what a fiber connection to a cell site costs each month? Try anywhere from $5K to $10K per month. Rent to be on a tower? Try $1K to $5K per month. The equipment in that cell site? Well over $100K, with more costs when capacity is added. This is for each and every cell site that is on the air, for every real carrier (not MVNO's, since they just buy minutes from real carriers) and is nowhere near a complete list of costs associated with providing service. It always amazes me how everyone on this site seems to think it is so cheap to provide cell service. I'll say it now, all of your assumptions about the costs of providing service are very wrong.

Re: Straight Talk

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 19:59:47 EDT

BiggA posted : Huge equipment costs for use equipment subsidies, tower lease fees, maintenance, leasing fiber, none of that is a cheap business.

Re: Straight Talk

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 10:14:47 EDT

medbuyer posted :

said by brianiscool:

I wish we can let some Chinese company come in and offer cell service. I bet they would charge $11 a month or something for unlimited service.

yeah, and then have chinese tech support not completely understanding what your issue is and then you complain...

Re: Straight Talk

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 09:32:06 EDT

brianiscool posted : I wish we can let some Chinese company come in and offer cell service. I bet they would charge $11 a month or something for unlimited service.

Re: Straight Talk

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 22:51:01 EDT

r81984 posted : I dont get why cell phones are so expensive.
Cell service went live in like 1981.
The provider spends nothing on content as the content is free (talking to friends, and internet).
There are no expensive wires ran all around town and towers can handle more customers than ever.
Towers and antennas, fiber drops to the towers, power, are all already in place. All the provider has to do is upgrade equipment every now and then which is pennies for the number of people the equipment can support.

But yet cell service costs just as much as cabletv which has to pay for all of its content.
It just does not make any sense.
We lease the spectrum to these companies for cheap and in return they sell us service with like 1000% margins on it.
--
...brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Re: Straight Talk

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 20:29:26 EDT

BiggA posted : Most Android phones from them are Sprint, but there's T-Mobile ones, and a phone with AT&T, and a phone with Verizon (no roaming on VZ). Then they have ST SIM, which you can choose T-Mobile or AT&T.

Re: Straight Talk

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:02:08 EDT

Eddy120876 posted : Well I been all over NJ and PA with my ST Iphone 3GS and no signal issues or roaming I even called over seas for 5 minutes each time and no warning or issues. Still I do wish ST had LTE .

Re: Straight Talk

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 12:13:35 EDT

nightshade74 posted :

said by Rob_:

Just don't go too far away from the city straight talk uses Sprint (no roaming)

You cant just say they just use sprint...
If I recall correctly -- it's just Android phones purchased
from them that use sprint. See coverage map --
»www.straighttalk.com/Coverage

You can buy SIM cards from them for use in AT&T or T-Mobile
devices.

Re: Straight Talk

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 04:24:39 EDT

Rob_ posted : Just don't go too far away from the city straight talk uses Sprint (no roaming)

-Rob

Re: Straight Talk

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 01:15:40 EDT

danry25 posted : There is a way around it? Are you using an apn for a diffrent mvno or an apn that is for technicians to use to test a phone's data service? Regardless, that is pretty interesting, but all networks have holes that you can push data through :)

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 23:26:58 EDT

Chubbysumo posted : It is tho, albeit, at a slow speed, but you can still use as much as you want unless they cut you off completely. Currently at 2.7GB for this month and not throttled or cut off.

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 23:25:25 EDT

Chubbysumo posted : Straighttalk eased up on the cutoffs and throttling because of bad PR they were getting, including customer service reps and other company representatives calling users and yelling at them over "excessive" data usage and minutes and text usage. Remember, ST, and by extension TracPhone is owned by Mexico teleco giant Carlos Slim, and their service centers get away with crap like that in Mexico, whereas here, they got slapped with a few lawsuits and they eased up on the throttling. Also, I found a way around the throttling, but it only works if you gain access to the iPhone APN settings.

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 23:20:48 EDT

Chubbysumo posted : Tmo is a good prepaid, but only in certain situations. If your area does not have a ton of tmo towers, and you roam on AT&T too much, tmo kicks you off. Also, if you have a gsm iPhone, you cannot use tmo's 3G network unless they have turned on 1900mhz spectrum in your area or you bought it from them. Up where I live, tmobile hardly exists, and they have only towers in town, which covers only about a 5 mile radius thanks to the hills).

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 21:32:52 EDT

BF69 posted :

said by clevere1:

I'll take throttled over a per-gig charge anyday.

Sure but they shouldn't say it's UNLIMITED.

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:46:25 EDT

clevere1 posted : I'll take throttled over a per-gig charge anyday.

I've had ST for 4 months on iPhone 3gs. Never had a problem until I went mucking with stuff. Even after IOS6, things work great.

I went over 2GB and didn't get throttled, two months in a row.
--
Where's th' DAFFY DUCK EXHIBIT??

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 19:37:37 EDT

Eddy120876 posted : STRAIGHT TALK 4 THE WIN!!!!! Sorry ATT but your "amazing pre paid deal" SUCK!!!

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 19:28:29 EDT

BiggA posted : Exactly. And ST includes domestic roaming and GoPhone doesn't. ST is just a better deal in every way.

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 19:04:02 EDT

elefante72 posted : I was talking about MVNO, but IMHO the only prepaid main line to even look at is Tmo. The others are just check boxes.

The problem w/ ST is that unlike the others you have absolutely no idea what the trigger is for throttle. The other major ones sorta tell you where it is. VM used to be unlimited, now after 2.5 it throttles. Some people say it's too much in one day, or too much in a month, and that ST doesn't do the throttle, the main line does. So some people want Tmo ST vs AT&T, however the coverage varies between the two. In fact there are even ST Verizon phones.

Verizon by far is the most hostile to MVNO's, so they are truly the premium brand. Tmo and Sprint are the best for MVNO so much so that postpaid Sprint is questionable unless you are a massive data user. While there are VZ MVNO, they are mostly targeted to the flip phone sector...Only PPC The 55 is the 2GB/data plan out there, but again only on older 3G phones unless you muck w/ the LTE ones.

There are lots of gotchas out there, so do your homework.

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:41:37 EDT

buddahbless posted :

said by elefante72:

It's not unlimited either. There is some chatter that if you become one of the 5% ers on a tower, they will throttle you to dialup,
For AT&T, Straighttalk is the best right now if you can live with random throttling.
For TMo, Tmo $30, and I hear Solavei will use Tmo towers.
Verizon - Only pageplus. And that's $55 for 2GB but only works w/ 3G phones (using LTE phones a real challenge).
Gophone only has crappy smartphones, so this is more of a check the box until they get some real phones.

None of the prepaids are truly unlimited they all throttle you the question is when.
I agree if you want ATT service without the ATT price hop on the straight talk train.
The jury is still out on Solavei, I hope they succeed but so far it looks to be a MLM scheme in the making.
Verizons own prepaid unlimited (not pageplus) ..Phones that should make you laugh at how far behind they are in technology. That was done for a reason, so on one would want it.
GO phone service well yes ther normal phones offered are almost as bad as Verizons, the plus is you could use any GSM phone you want thats compatible with ATT network, cant do that with Verizon.

Funny thing is ...I have a friend that before this Offer was and still is using a Smartphone on ATT gophones $50 plan, even though they stated you cant do that unless you have the extra data plan. All ATT did was throttle his connection to under 256K.

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:35:29 EDT

nothing00 posted : That's pretty awesome. Can you quote the relevant parts?

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:57:45 EDT

skeechan posted : It's easy. AT&T unlocks the phone and Apple provides the APN tool.

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:19:54 EDT

elefante72 posted : It's not unlimited either. There is some chatter that if you become one of the 5% ers on a tower, they will throttle you to dialup, so good luck getting over 2GB, and there is no warning. The price is $45, but there is a good deal of risk in that. And it depends if you are using at&t or Tmobile SIM.

Iphones sometimes work and sometimes don't and certain features may or may not work.

If you have good Sprint coverage and not a lot of min, VM $25 plan is great price, or upcoming Ting.

For AT&T, Straighttalk is the best right now if you can live with random throttling.
For TMo, Tmo $30, and I hear Solavei will use Tmo towers.
Verizon - Only pageplus. And that's $55 for 2GB but only works w/ 3G phones (using LTE phones a real challenge).

Gophone only has crappy smartphones, so this is more of a check the box until they get some real phones.

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:14:29 EDT

Chubbysumo posted :

said by rradina:

Unlimited talk and text seem clear but what does the term "web" mean? Does it mean proxy access to a walled garden of web sites or any IP protocol to any site?

GO read their self contradicting ToS on your own, it says you can use it to download music, and then it says you cannot use it to download music.

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:11:52 EDT

Chubbysumo posted :

said by SunnyD:

And if by "unlimited" you mean "don't use more than a couple hundred meg at any given time otherwise you'll get your account suspended".

Don't know about you, but I have used so far on this monthly billing cycle 2.5GB according to my phone over cellular, and have not been throttled or heard a peep.

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:11:04 EDT

Chubbysumo posted :

said by medbuyer:

said by brianiscool:

If you go with them you can get AT&T for $55 a month. Unlimited talk, text and web.

except, using that on an iphone is kinda quirky in the sense that users are advised to use unlocked iphones and change apn setting to make data work...

and still some doesn't have data even after changing settings...

You do NOT need an unlocked iphone, all you need is iOS3 or above that supports carrier profiles from unlockit.co.nz and you simply install the carrier profile for either an ATT MVNO or ST. I have been using ST for 7 months now with zero issues with data doing this.

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:02:06 EDT

rradina posted : Unlimited talk and text seem clear but what does the term "web" mean? Does it mean proxy access to a walled garden of web sites or any IP protocol to any site?

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:58:30 EDT

SunnyD posted : And if by "unlimited" you mean "don't use more than a couple hundred meg at any given time otherwise you'll get your account suspended".

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:43:29 EDT

medbuyer posted :

said by brianiscool:

If you go with them you can get AT&T for $55 a month. Unlimited talk, text and web.

Re: Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:42:55 EDT

ssavoy posted : $45. I'm using them now on AT&T.

Straight Talk

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:31:44 EDT

brianiscool posted : If you go with them you can get AT&T for $55 a month. Unlimited talk, text and web.