Question About Straight Talk Buy A SIM & Using In A Straight Talk Non Smart Phone

[Dust N Bones]

Ok this question will seem a little backwards from what most people want to do with the BYOD SIM Program.

Back in January I bought my nephew a Straight Talk T401G Feature phone. It was the promo that came with the free refurbished T401G phone & a 3 months service card. His phone came with a T-mobile SIM.

T-mobile service has been decent on the phone but there are areas where he doesn't get any service where I know there would be AT&T service. Now I know the SIMS that come with the feature phones are locked to that device however if I order an unlocked $15 AT&T BYOD SIM from Straight Talk will it work with the T401G? If not I guess I could just look into getting him a new phone. He only needs talk & text. He doesn't use the mobile browser on the phone.

[Carole Wright]

I too have the same question...I can get a free basic (I'm sure) GSM phone with the purchase of my normal service card. I would like to be able to pop my BYOD sim into the free phone on occasions where a phone might get wet, lost, etc. to prevent damage to my Inspire.

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[Andman433]

I would be forced to believe that the straight talk feature phones would be locked to the carrier that they are sold with. I can't verify this however. I just know that straight talk/Net10/Tracfone put lockdowns on their phones at least until the byod program came to fruition.

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[DROIDBERG]

If there is a way to change the apn settings on the phone then i guess its possible. Technically talk and text should work as soon as you pop in the sim just not sure if straight talk has the phones locked down. I would just buy a cheap used att phone. The older 3g phones like the lg flips and razors are really cheap nowadays.

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[maestroteague]

It's my understanding from what I've read that the feature phones are locked to the sim that they contain. That's why you can't take their sims out and use them in another phone. It would be cheap to test, if you want to try, but I would doubt that it would work. Mention was made about air tank software that is required for sims in the feature phones which ties to their system.

[Carole Wright]

I want to be able to switch ATT BYOD sim into the cheap ATT phone being given away w/purchase of a refill. I thing I will try it, the phone is free and I need to refill next month, anyway. I'll report back and let you all know if it works. If not, yes, I think I will just get a really cheap ATT phone on eBay. We learned a hard lesson recently, my son got his VM android wet and is now using Dad's really old VM flip phone while I find him a replacement. Should have just done an online ESN swap in the first place, and had him take the cheap phone camping!

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[oldnoob]

I just switched to ST last month and remember reading that you can't do that. From the FAQ page at http://www.straighttalksim.com/support.php. "BlackBerry® and branded TracFone, SafeLink, NET10 or Straight Talk phones will not work with this program." Sorry.

[Dust N Bones]

Good find Oldnoob, I guess that pretty much answers my question. I guess my thinking was that the Straight Talk GSM basic phones can ship with either a T-Mobile or AT&T SIM depending on the zip code entered on Straight Talk's website. Therefore I thought it could possibly work.

Now I'm thinking it wouldn't have mattered anyway because my nephew uses the $30 Straight Talk service with 1,000 minutes and I believe the BYOD SIM's must use the $45 unlimited monthly service. Wouldn't have been worth it in that case. Thanks for the responses everyone.