No-contract $30 / $45 Straight Talk wireless plans storm Walmart
By Darren Murph 
posted October 14th 2009 1:16PM
posted October 14th 2009 1:16PM
posted October 14th 2009 1:16PM
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Wow! I just read this in Phonescoop and send the tip hehe
Not bad at all! Knowing that TracFone / StraightTalk use Verizon's towers / coverage.
The slider does not look bad. I remmber I was on their website and all I saw was a flip LG and 2 RAZRs - RAZRs are the roaches of the cellphone world , they just don't die.
That's a minus for me. The place I work for has the company cell phones through Verizon. They had to keep my company phone on US Cellular as Verizon has crap coverage where I live. Verizon is OK if you only live in the city and drive on the Interstates.
UPDATE: Today I bought a Straight Talk to test the coverage on my area, it is excellent. The phone is only $40 and the quality of the call is really good. I think this is a great idea. Also now, it is $45 for unlimited everything, including data.
wow.. i wonder if you can hack other cellphones to use this plan.
it's gonna be hard. even the GSM stuff uses special sim cards that will only work in their phones. Love to see it though and at these prices its actually worth going through the work to do it. The only smart phones I know of that even might be hackable and even reasonably current are the verizon palm centros. If the pixie comes out n verizon it might be mighty nice though. An android phone would be the easiest to deal with but you'd need to have a verizon branded one, and I'm not sure there is currently any such animal.
Any hack is going to be ugly. You're probably going to have to get a walmart phone and then suck the data off it so you can spoof it.
Verizon is CDMA. No special sim cards, you just have to flash the PRL. The only other thing is, most CDMA providers require that your ESN (phone's serial number) be in their database and attached to your account. This would be the difficult part. Requires either someone on the inside, or a company-approved program (or clever social engineering). I work at a company that allows flashed phones on their network if they pass an RF test (for a nominal fee, of course).
-aedile-
I'm always amazed when you commenters talk about the peculiarities of the US mobile market. Here you just replace the SIM card and that's it, you are on a different carrier/plan/whatever. But you guys have different frequencies and protocols on each carrier so i guess it's more complicated.
This will probably sell, I work at Wal-mart and alot of people who go prepaid, dont give a damn about the phone.
are you from cleveland?
Nice, I like competition.
Is it safe to assume this is a GSM thing? anyone know if a SIM card could be used to get a different phone on the network?
and to answer myself, No
CDMA - Verizon towers
Tracfone uses both GSM and CDMA networks. Tracfone SIM cards won't work on other phones.
@cta - tracfone yes, but straight talk is cdma only - verizon towers
Does anyone know if you lose your minutes or your number if not used for more than 90days?
I come to the States once or twice a year and stay for a week. All the other carriers' prepaid options, if there is no use in your account for more than 90days, you lose your minutes and your number.
What would be the best option for someone who comes to the States on business a couple of times a year?
Thanks
What about voicemail and caller ID?
Yes and Yes
Pfeh. I pay Virgin Mobile $15 every 90 days (I don't talk much). My flip-phone has a 2MP camera, and cost me only $40 total. Of course, I am grandfathered into an older plan, but still... Why would I pay more for phone service? I don't text, I don't gab all day. I just need something or the occasional call and the voicemail.
I'd have an iPhone instead of an iPod touch if I could justify they monthly bill.
You sir are a smart consumer!
I just dropped my ridiculously priced Verizon plan and rather crappy Verizon phone for service with Net10. Like you I don't use the phone a lot, rarely text and don't need a do-it-all device that makes toast, fetches the paper and washes the car. I need a phone, period. I pay 30 bucks every two months which gets me 300 minutes (more than enough) and the hilarious irony is I am still using Verizon's towers to connect.
"Of course, the price of using an antediluvian LG 220, LG Slider 290 or Samsung 451 can't be measured in mere dollars, but hey, humiliation's only temporary -- right?"
If you're shopping for wireless phone service at a Walmart, then fashion sense is a non-factor.
lol A+ sir. . . If you are trying to be fashion-high-class at Walmart.. that is what in my town we call... Being a Ghetto Snob
True, they do sell iPhones there.
>>If you're shopping for wireless phone service at a Walmart, then fashion sense is a non-factor.
They sell the iPhone 3GS @ Wal*Mart. Shows what kind of lowlife they cater to there.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=1031099
Wow, love the article link to the Slider 290 and how that masonry brick of a phone is called 'slim'.
More proof that Wal-Mart does more to help the poor people in America than any politician or government action!!!
Wal-Mart raises quality of life. Government lowers it.
Odd how the obverse is true if you work for each of those entities.
Actually, Wal-Mart workers have the easiest opportunity to move up the ladder than most companies.
I know about 10 people that have gone from getting shopping carts from the parking to management. If you actually do you job and do it well (no matter what it is), you can move up.
Same thing happens in the retail and fast food world.
I agree, Walmart is as bad as people make it out to be. They make people's dollars go further thus raising the standard of living for everyone. If their employee's don't like the wages or the benefits they are welcome to get a job elsewhere or create their own small business for that matter.
Good luck getting to Walmart on those privately built and maintained roads. Enjoy the products that come from places far away that have nothing to do with US trade agreements. Buy the products that have no safety regulations imposed on them by the government. Don't forget to pick up some groceries that are not grown by government-subsidized agribusiness which would be completely unprofitable otherwise.
fryguy, the actual wealth creation that paid for those roads did not come from government. While it's good government takes that wealth and uses it for roads, it's not fair to give them credit for the work that the private sector did to earn that. Government is of the people.
Gimboa,
You have made one of the most profound points that anti-capitalists always forgets. All the money the government spend on "public" things must be taken from privately earned wealth.
The government can't generate wealth or money unless they print it. If they just print it, the value drops, inflation goes up, and the $20 bill in your pocket can't by a candy bar. The future isn't far away as long as the feds keep spending and taxing Americans who create wealth.
can you port numbers to this service? does anyone who works at Wal-Mart know?
Yes, you can. Call in or take your phone.
wow, that's pretty quality. My Verizon phone has pretty much shit the bed, and before I re-up for another 2yr contract, I'm waiting til after the New Year for new phones to get to Big Red, (hopefully the Pre or Iphone). I might port my number to this for 3 or so months and save a shit load of money! =)
What network does this piggyback off of? Is it GSM or CDMA? If it's GSM...hmm...this could be very intriguing...
I am guessing Verizon since the user interface icons on that phone looks exactly like my Verizon phone's icons.
Straight Talk is one of TracFone's newest brands and as of July 30, 2009 provides customers with two different value based 30-day rate plans. Straight Talk is an MVNO that uses Verizon's CDMA 1XRTT wireless network which was introduced in 2001 and is said to deliver between 40 and 60 kbs (kilobits per second) to customers[7]. Straight Talk's coverage is limited in certain areas (most of Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, Mississippi and western Texas)[8] but provides good coverage in the major metro areas. Only three phones are available for use with Straight Talk: The LG 200CM, Motorola W385, and Motorola RAZR V3a.
To answer the GSM part:
Currently, TracFone uses the networks of several different cellphone carriers to provide service.
For newer models with SIM cards,
* AT&T Wireless (Cingular) on most Motorola GSM phones.
* T-Mobile on most LG models.
On phones which do not use SIM cards, carriers are usually:
* Verizon Wireless
* US Cellular
On Tracfones with SIM cards, the carrier can be identified in the same manner as any other SIM-based phone, by interpreting the SIM number. On T-Mobile phones, the first line of the SIM number will end in "SIMT5", on Cingular/AT&T, the first line will end in "SIMC4".
@tikiteko source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TracFone_Wireless
@hexydes verizon cdma
My T-Mobile bill is slapping me
My lump, my lump, my huge money lump,
With the tax they also got you,
It got you spending.
Spendin' all your money on me and spending time on me.
It got me spendin'.
Spendin' all your money on me, up on me, on me
thouse really arent bad phones for pre-paid. this is a great deal.
If they had a 'qwerty' style text phone, I would be all over this.
http://www.engadget.com/photos/no-contract-30-45-straight-talk-wireless-plans-storm-walmart/2364340/
They have a full qwerty. It looks like the Messenger from Metro PCS Hello Hello Hello :D (that is the metro pcs jingle, I am not helloing you)
Will talking on this phone make me like football or is that just a stereotype?
huh?
That R810C looks good, it says EV-DO is on it, will it actually use it when connected to the network? Also, what if I get a Sprint or Verizon phone off of ebay? Can I firmware flash it and register the ESN with StraightTalk?
Look at this from the perspective of your mother. A basic phone that makes calls, that's what my Mom wants and its cheaper than her current Verizon bill so its really a no brainer that when her contract is up she should switch. This is not intended for us, the techno geeks of the intarwebs but for the mere commoners who use their cell phone to do silly things like make phone calls.
I wonder if I could come off sero for this...