Walmart Takes Flak For Limited, Unlimited Wireless

Good to know this will be on Verizons network, actually have some coverage.

Question is, are these phones refurbished? They are old, and either Verizon joined this deal to get rid of old stock or they are refurbs.
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SurfingOC.com / GsdPhotography.com

They aren't refurbs. They'are actually new phones, just low-end.

Coverage good on vz? In what universe?

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LETS GO METS!

The same universe where AT&T is "The Nation's Fastest 3G Network".

Oh wait....

If it was GSM it would have better coverage.
I travel across the US and GSM has better coverage.
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Democrats are not Socialists any more than Republicans are.

Same here, but Verizon's network and CDMA in general has the best coverage in the US. Some area's may be different, but Verizons network and 3G network is bigger than AT&T.
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I get 29 MPG in my Toyota Highlander Hybrid!

You must not travel much in the Western US, I have yet to find a place where GSM has service that CDMA doesn't, and I travel allover CA, and the west both by train and car on a regular basis. GSM has better worldwide coverage, but CDMA is still king in the US.
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You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything.

If you ever been east of california you would realize GSM has better coverage.
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Democrats are not Socialists any more than Republicans are.

I've been east of CA many times, all the way to DC and Philly, but out west CDMA beats GSM. Now, I love GSM, but for coverage in the Western US CDMA has the best coverage, and the most 3G.
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You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything.

Oklahoma City has basically zero CDMA coverage, mainly because AT&T puts heavy bucks into the city. I was there for 4 days, had ZERO coverage with my Verizon phone. It SUCKED.
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You're so vain... I bet you think this post is about you.

Did you update your PRL before going? Oklahoma City has excellent CDMA coverage from US Cellular, whom your Verizon phone should have roamed over to.
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You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything.

CDMA has far better coverage here in NYC

Okay, maybe I'm reading something different, but under their own FAQ, the first item is about how to handle monthly top-ups.

1.Auto-Refill (Most Convenient)

Just register your credit or debit card, and every 30 days, your Straight Talk Account will be refilled with $45 (unlimited talk and texts plus 30MB of data) or $30 (1000 minutes, 1000 text and/or multimedia messages plus 30MB of data). 30MB of data delivers about 300 web pages. You can cancel at any time Without penalty or switch plans when you choose.

So apparently unlimited = 30 MB of data.

The $45 plan originally had only 30mb of data but was changed to unlimited. Maybe some of the wording was missed but it is considered unlimited.

Engagdet shows an EVDO handset with an html browser that isn't yet available but is slated for the service here. Probably not the best phone either but better then the rest. WalMart will probably make more expensive phones available since they are involved it seems as a partner with Tracfone on this.

»www.engadget.com/photos/ ··· 2364336/

It wouldn't be difficult to get any cdma phone onto the service for those with the expertise either.

The KEY idea here is that they think they can offer UNLIMITED data because the phones themselves by their very feature set LIMITED by what you can do as far as interacting with the internet.. maybe you can send email and browse a limited cache of data information.. but true browing is limited. For the prices they are offering for the phones ($59-$99), there are much more lower walled gardens out there if you look... t-mobile, sprint, and others have better phones at competitive prices.. so it will eventually be a battle of how much they will offer the consumer in terms of smarter phones at these prices. Comparatively, it's not any better than phones 3-5 years ago from post-paid accounts.

Another thing is we have to rely on internet reviews of phones because the walmart retail stores DO NOT let users interact and try these phones out first in the store the way a normal celllular carrier store would. They are sometimes locked up on shelves or in cases so you either want it, or you don't just by what you see and can't interact with first. Anyhow, $45 a month for unlimited is too much for my usage.. if they went to $35 a month... where my over priced Cable Voip is.. I'd probably ditch that and get it.. but not until!

How many times does it have to be pointed out that this is not a venture owned by Wal-Mart? The Straight Talk service is owned by TracFone, which is owned by America Movil, a Mexican company. Wal-Mart is simply reselling the service in their stores. If you don't want to get the service in a Wal-Mart store, you can also get it directly from the Straight Talk Web site.

I'm not defending Wal-Mart here, but if we're going to discuss this, let's at least get the facts straight. Just because they offer a product doesn't mean they own it.

it's being sold on the wire as a wal-mart venture or a rebranded venture:

Walmart to Launch Straight Talk Exclusively, Nationwide

»www.prnewswire.com/news- ··· 872.html

Unless something has changed recently, my understanding was that Straight Talk was being marketed through Wal-Mart but was owned by TracFone. I say this because I heard about this service months ago, long before Wal-Mart was mentioned.

»www.phonescoop.com/news/ ··· p?n=4538

It seems likely that Walmart is involved as a partner in this.

Just my opinion but its not being sold under existing brands and its sold exclusively at Walmart. Thats what I am basing it on along with the press releases almost none of which even identify American Movil.

It is NOT sold exclusively at WalMart! I looked into getting it several months ago when WalMart had NOTHING to do with it. It is owned by Tracfone and you can it through Tracfone.
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When governments fear people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. Thomas Jefferson

the website still says TracFone as well.

That doesn't rule out Walmart being a partner which other evidence such as the exclusivity points to.

so they maybe a partner or even market the product. DOES NOT mean they own the company.

If a service plasters all over their ads saying, unlimited, and you get anything but - that is an easy court case for false advertising...plain and simple. Just because you have a TOS that says "fair use" or specifies an actual limit does not mean that it is valid.

Something I have been trying to across for a better part of a year; TOS DOES NOT MEAN THE LAW. I don't care if in the TOS it says that there is a limit, if you sell me the service under the impression that it is "unlimited", it better be "unlimited" otherwise you will be hearing my attorney. In fact, you wouldn't even need an attorney for that one:
You: "Judge, look this a flyer they put out advertising unlimited data service, and here are bills of people who got charged for going over unlimited."

You should take up the cause for the American people and sue them and every ISP that has done the same thing over the years. But no where in the part of the article that Karl posted is there a stated cap,just the usual no tethering clause that most wireless providers have. How that was twisted into being a cap is beyond me.
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Patriots always speak of dying for their country never killing for it. Bertrand Russell

Where do you see that ISPs advertised unlimited? The only ISP I know of that did that was Comcast and they dropped that wording years and years ago.

And as far as I know, handset data access is unlimited and no one has been harassed by their provider for going over unlimited.

A few ISPs advertise unlimited service, or at least "no caps" if they're trying to compete with the incumbents. One big one I know of is Grande Communications. There are others, but I don't recall them off the top of my head.

and a few ISPs are?

Again, Grande is the only one that comes to mind off the top of my head, but they're rather prominent about it.

I took at look at them and I think they are a little dated:

said by »www.grandecom.com/explor ··· nternet/ :

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Email Addresses with 100MB of storage

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And their website doesn't look too modern...it feels like I stepped into a time machine going back maybe 10 years.

I have a feeling that they haven't updated their site OR services to keep up with the times. Do you agree?

No.

Unless you've forgotten, MANY ISPs still don't have huge mailboxes, because they expect people to pull down their mail via POP3 every week...and people do.

As for their website, it's actually quite usable. Definitely not a 10-year-old site. They haven't had any huge structural changes in the site layout over the past few years that I've been tracking them, but then again they don't need any changes. The site works perfectly well as it stands.

Lastly, sorry to disrupt your "feelings" but the company ofers 15.0/4.0 fiber in some areas, and 12/1 cable everywhere else. 12/1 isn't the fastest thing out there, but it's better than what Time Warner Cable offers in a fair number of their areas. It's also cheaper than any of Comcast's tiers, with a triple play bndling discount that ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE (10% off on ouble play, 20% off on triple play, DONE). Grande also implemented their brand of PowerBoost on downloads (»Grande Communications Intros PowerBoost).

Oh, and they've got online backup too, if you want to pay for it. It's not unlimited-for-$5, but it doesn't need to be.

As a veteran of this war against the word unlimited (see unlimited dialup accounts circa 1995) all they have to do is fall back on;

"unlimited means we don't limit what you can access over the connection, not you have an unlimited amount of time or data you can transfer...
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Fed Up With Stupidity?

Patentlystupid.com

It's unlimited web access on the device. What's so bad about that? If you dont use it on the device, you get cut off. Simple as that.

If you want unlimited data for your computer on a $45 plan, get CricKet. You won't get unlimited voice or text messaging, and you won't get the Verizon network, but you will get the price point you're asking for.

Sorry to break it to you, but at this point youre asking for too much if you want to use a cell phone as a modem for your computer, yet still require of it unlimited voice and messaging...for $45 per month.

will the walmart service work with a Verizon femtocell?

If it does and they come out with some better phones, I will have no problems switching to what Walmart offers for some decent savings.

It seems like a few providers need to be slapped a few more times then. Sprint advertised "unlimited" data on my bill recently, even with their widely advertised 5GB caps. AT&T did the same thing when I had them with my iPhone.

The whole wireless industry needs to be beaten down by some government agency that regulates advertising... (Hmm, FTC anybody?)
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Nobel peace prize for Obammer... Now he's got one more thing in common with Arafat besides hating America. And he's just as succesful as Jimmy "the failure" Carter.

Save yourselves ...switch to Boost ...!!!

Ahhhhhhhh Hahahahahahahahahahaha ...!

Sorry ...couln't help but add some humor !

Unless you exceed your cap on your limited unlimited plan.

Wife switched to Boost about 4 months ago, drops calls left and right - she can't get past all the money she is saving over verizon - yes, she's a blonde !!! WTF good is having a phone service that drops 30% of all calls? Like I said before, she's blonde !!!