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cwvallier
join:2009-06-26
Turlock, CA

cwvallier

Member

[iPhone] iPhone 4 on Straight Talk

I have an iphone 4 with AT&T. My two year contract expired a few days ago. I am getting tired of paying AT&T through the nose for data. I am looking at going month to month with Straight Talk. I have a few questions -

1. Is the data from Straight Talk truly unlimited, or is it throttled?
2. Is it 3g speeds?
3. Is the coverage as good as AT&T?
4. Can I put the phone back on AT&T if needed?
5. Has anybody actually done this who could give me their opinion on the subject?

Thanks in advance!

MDColson
join:2002-12-20
West Hartford, CT

MDColson

Member

1. Consensus is to stay under 200mb/day or 2gb/mo or face potential throttling.

2. You will use att signals and towers, so you will get the same hspa+ speeds.

3. You will use att signals and towers, therefore no roaming. If you got an att signal before, then you will get one now.

4. I don't see why not, just put the old sim card back in.

5. I've used Straight Talk for 3-4 months and I've been happy with the price and service. If you want the att service, make sure you order the att sim card and not the tmobile sim card. You have the option for either when purchasing the card online.

skeechan
Ai Otsukaholic
Premium Member
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170

skeechan

Premium Member

+1

I've been using straight talk with my old iPhone 4 without any issue at all. $45 prepaid, done deal. The only thing I really noticed was the loss of visual voicemail, other than that I can't tell it apart from the old AT&T service.

Stacy
FotoDogue
Premium Member
join:2001-11-02
New York, NY

Stacy to cwvallier

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to cwvallier
I've also been using StraightTalk on my iPhone 3Gs for about two months now. Coverage and reliability is just like AT&T. During Hurricane Sandy when AT&T towers were down, I was without service too. The only difference I've noticed is trying to set up some kind of voicemail and dealing with phone menus, but I've begun to wonder if that might be some kind of setting on my phone.

In the aftermath of Sandy I did have some problems renewing so I've since set my account for auto renew. Straighttalk sent a message that they would charge my account on the last day so it seems just as easy, maybe easier, than it was with AT&T. Oh and they did extend my 30 day plan for one day when I was completely without service. Days I traveled uptown to areas with coverage were included in the plan.
cwvallier
join:2009-06-26
Turlock, CA

cwvallier

Member

Thanks for the replies everyone. Two people have mentioned voicemail issues. Will I be without voicemail if I go with Straight Talk?

Teasip
join:2001-05-14
Plano, TX

Teasip to cwvallier

Member

to cwvallier
I'm interested in this as well. Have new iPhones on hand, unopened, with an accompanying contract renewal but since phones aren't active I can still rescind.

Stacy
FotoDogue
Premium Member
join:2001-11-02
New York, NY

Stacy to cwvallier

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StraightTalk says they don't support Visual Voicemail, but who knows, there might be some kind of workaround I'm not aware of. They also don't support individual phones, at least not when you bring your own. But they do include the standard audio menu driven voicemail that's been around for years.

My phone is still locked so I'm using the profile downloaded from the StraightTalk site. There's a different version you can find on the web, via Google, that may have different results.

clevere1
Premium Member
join:2002-01-06
Vancouver, WA

clevere1 to cwvallier

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to cwvallier
To make things work right, your phone should be unlocked.

I would order the t-mobile card and the att card (unless you have a friend with t-mobile. Then unlock your phone and do the t-mobile switch, and put in the apn settings, otherwise you won't get mms messaging. Or you can jailbreak. But it works great, been using it for months. Who cares about "visual" voicemail :P

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff

MVM,

What do you gain from unlocking the phone and using the AT&T SIM? The card already works with a locked iPhone.

clevere1
Premium Member
join:2002-01-06
Vancouver, WA

clevere1

Premium Member

MMS without having to do some odd hacking or jailbreaking.

skeechan
Ai Otsukaholic
Premium Member
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170

skeechan to cwvallier

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to cwvallier
Voicemail works fine, you just don't get the additional features offered by visual voicemail such as picking the order in which you listen to messages. You retrieve messages in the order in which they were recorded.

Stacy
FotoDogue
Premium Member
join:2001-11-02
New York, NY

Stacy to cwvallier

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Update: turns out iOS has a "feature" that allows you to hide the keypad during calls. Once I turned my keypad on, or didn't inadvertently turn it off, I was able to set up voicemail almost without a hitch.

StraightTalk's instructions to dial *86 didn't work on my iPhone so I just pressed the Voicemail button on my phone to access the menu.