Travelling to US soon. Question about Straight Talk
So I'll be visiting my grandparents soon who have no internet access at their home. Therefore having internet on my phone will be crucial and I don't want to pay my home carrier ridiculous amounts just to have access to that. I was looking at straight talk and it seems to offer much better value than AT&T prepaid but I wanted to confirm a few things first.
-I noticed they offer unlimited "Mobile Web Access"? Does this work on smartphones? I'm guessing with the whole thread on speedtests in this forum, I would assume the answer is yes, but I just wanted to confirm that this is true before I activate the service because I only want the service for data, I have no use for the calling or texting
-If it does work on smartphones, is the data speed throttled? I know AT&T does throttle the speeds of certain MVNOs, not sure if Straight Talk is included
-Has anyone tried the mobile hotspot feature on their smartphones to see if it works?
-Can microSIMs be purchased at wal-mart or do they just sell Straight Talk branded phones there?
-Lastly, can I activate the service by calling in? My grandparents don't have internet access and I won't be visiting relatives that have internet access for at least a day or two.
Where are you currently located? What do you already have that might be used with an unlocked ST AT&T SIM?
AT&T data on ST is not throttled but is not truly Unlimited. You need to read the Terms and Conditions to see just how you will be limited. ST SIM`s are Not sold at WalMart. You can activate by phone
I have an unlocked moto razr that uses AT&T's 3g bands. I will only be in the US for a week so I won't be abusing the service.
You will have to purchase the SIM card online from Straight Talk, but they do FedEx shipping so it is pretty quick. It sounds like if you stay in the range 2GB of data per month then you should be fine.
If you are only going to be here for a short period of time and aren't going to be using a smartphone, you probably should just purchase an AT&T SIM when you get here from an AT&T Store, or get one on Amazon.com or Ebay, and activate it once you get here.
They have daily plans with unlimited talk, text, and data that'll probably be cheaper than ST, and you won't have to deal with getting the SIM from ST.
If you're going to be in Orange County, California, I can supply you with an unused Red Pocket or Airvoice SIM for whatever I paid for them (probably less than $10). They use AT&T's towers so the coverage would be the same as AT&T Prepaid.
1. Yes, ST's data works on all phones, including smartphones. You have to program your APN to att.mvno to get data to work. There are other settings that ST recommends for data (proxy/port), but I've found them to be non-essential (but I still use them).
2. ST is not throttled, but ST is having data issues right now. When you first try to connect, the registration fails 50% of the time and you get no data until you toggle mobile data off and then on again. I'm unclear on whether this is affecting AT&T, or only MVNOs, or only ST.
3. Most Android phones sold in the U.S. have a special hotspot feature that will only work if the carrier activates it. International phones (like the Motorola Defy and the Droid Razr GSM) come with a different 3G hotspot app that works without carrier activation. And many U.S. users will root their phones and install the "Wifi Tether" App. The latter two options have been reported to work on ST, but the first option won't, since ST wouldn't be able to activate and wouldn't even if they could.
ST's TOS prohibit tethering, so feel compelled to tell you not to do it.
4. MicroSIMs and SIMs can only be purchased from ST's web site. Some of the phones sold at Walmart don't have SIMs because they use CDMA networks. Most of the phones that do have SIMs at Walmart have locked SIMs that won't work in any other phones, and many of those operate on TMobile's network (which uses 1700 Mhz and won't support HS data on most international GSM Phones). The only exception is the Nokia E71, E5, and 6790, which are reported to have unlocked SIMs that supposedly can be moved to another phone.
5. Yes, you can activate service by calling in, but if you have any trouble activating, it can take hours to get it corrected.
Originally Posted by B407
So I'll be visiting my grandparents soon who have no internet access at their home. Therefore having internet on my phone will be crucial and I don't want to pay my home carrier ridiculous amounts just to have access to that. I was looking at straight talk and it seems to offer much better value than AT&T prepaid but I wanted to confirm a few things first.
-I noticed they offer unlimited "Mobile Web Access"? Does this work on smartphones? I'm guessing with the whole thread on speedtests in this forum, I would assume the answer is yes, but I just wanted to confirm that this is true before I activate the service because I only want the service for data, I have no use for the calling or texting
-If it does work on smartphones, is the data speed throttled? I know AT&T does throttle the speeds of certain MVNOs, not sure if Straight Talk is included
-Has anyone tried the mobile hotspot feature on their smartphones to see if it works?
-Can microSIMs be purchased at wal-mart or do they just sell Straight Talk branded phones there?
-Lastly, can I activate the service by calling in? My grandparents don't have internet access and I won't be visiting relatives that have internet access for at least a day or two.
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Originally Posted by B407
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