Walmart $40 family plan

[siggy1964]

My girlfriend bought the starter kit for $25. Now she needs a phone. I told her to get the N4 from Google play (thanks guys). The thing I noticed though, is this plan has unlimited talk, text and web but no mention of data although the employee that helped her said it was included. I don't think he knew what he was talking about. Can she download and use apps like weather navigation etc with this plan? Can she return the starter kit?

 

[shelliewnj]

No, that plan is meant for a dumb phone, I had that plan for a little over a year. You want the 75/mo plan for data

 

[ExtremeNerd]

My girlfriend bought the starter kit for $25. Now she needs a phone. I told her to get the N4 from Google play (thanks guys). The thing I noticed though, is this plan has unlimited talk, text and web but no mention of data although the employee that helped her said it was included. I don't think he knew what he was talking about. Can she download and use apps like weather navigation etc with this plan? Can she return the starter kit?

Straight Talk.
Runs on T-Mobile or AT&T. $45 per month unlimited everything.

 

[thewalkingdead]

I've never heard of the Walmart family deal that you've mentioned but I do know a lot about straight talk plans that they sell because I've been using it for about 6 months now. Straight talk has many different plans but the best ones are their $45/mo plan with unlimited everything (talk, text, picture mail, data etc). They also have an unlimited everything international version for $60. Straight talk also has another plan that cost $30/mo but it isn't unlimited everything. The best part of straight talk is that they sell their own phones or you can bring your own. Their service is compatible with at&t and t mobile or any unlocked phone.

 

[hstroph]

Straight Talk.
Runs on T-Mobile or AT&T. $45 per month unlimited everything.

My net10 $50/month "unlimited everything" on an AT&T SIM just informed me via text message this morning that as of March 01 2013, data will be limited to 1.5GB per 30 days.

I was already considering Straight Talk just for the $60/year savings over net10, and the 2-hour "hold" time I suffer whenever help is needed. Yesterday when I finally made net10 contact for help restoring data connection APN settings, the support person told me that net10.com, straighttalk.com and tracfone.com are all the same Tracfone-owned service.

I assume that now the "Unlimited" Straight Talk is also limited to 1.5GB/30-days.

 

[DragonSlayer95]

My net10 $50/month "unlimited everything" on an AT&T SIM just informed me via text message this morning that as of March 01 2013, data will be limited to 1.5GB per 30 days.

I was already considering Straight Talk just for the $60/year savings over net10, and the 2-hour "hold" time I suffer whenever help is needed. Yesterday when I finally made net10 contact for help restoring data connection APN settings, the support person told me that net10.com, straighttalk.com and tracfone.com are all the same Tracfone-owned service.

I assume that now the "Unlimited" Straight Talk is also limited to 1.5GB/30-days.

Net 10 and straight talk are kinda like the same now if they limit you to 1.5 gigs per month now.

Way I'm thinking, after 1.5 gigs, you would start receiving edge speeds (1xrtt) rather than 3g.

Straight Talk, it's similar but they limit you to 100mb per day then you get kicked down to 1xrtt data speeds.

So if you think about it, neither is unlimited as claimed.

 

[siggy1964]

She took it back today no questions asked

 

[hstroph]

Net 10 and straight talk are kinda like the same now if they limit you to 1.5 gigs per month now.

Way I'm thinking, after 1.5 gigs, you would start receiving edge speeds (1xrtt) rather than 3g.

Straight Talk, it's similar but they limit you to 100mb per day then you get kicked down to 1xrtt data speeds.

So if you think about it, neither is unlimited as claimed.

From late Nov. 2012 until now, I've been using ~2GB/1.5-week with no bandwidth throttling on the AT&T SIM net10 "Unlimited" 30-day plan.

It looks like I'm in a T-mobile coverage area for the majority of my travels, so I've requested the no-cost T-Mobile SIM from net10.

Since Straight Talk also offers T-Mobile SIM service, I may just drop net10 come end-of-service. Yes, they're both Tracfone services, but ST T-Mobile "Unlimited" at $45/30-days is better than net10 T-Mobile "Unlimited" at $50, all else being equal and not considering your "Way I'm thinking" qualification which has no real validity without further technical justification.

The free-market unlocked GSM philosophy of the Nexus 4 absolutely rules.

 

[DragonSlayer95]

From late Nov. 2012 until now, I've been using ~2GB/1.5-week with no bandwidth throttling on the AT&T SIM net10 "Unlimited" 30-day plan.

It looks like I'm in a T-mobile coverage area for the majority of my travels, so I've requested the no-cost T-Mobile SIM from net10.

Since Straight Talk also offers T-Mobile SIM service, I may just drop net10 come end-of-service.

The unlocked GSM philosophy of the Nexus 4 absolutely rules.

If you do that, keep in mind that straight talk does throttle the data speeds to a crawl after you use up 100mb each day.

 

[hstroph]

If you do that, keep in mind that straight talk does throttle the data speeds to a crawl after you use up 100mb each day.

I will do so, but where do{es} the Straight Talk "Terms & Conditions" state it for their T-Mobile SIM, or even AT&T for that matter? My weekly Titanium Backup uploaded to box.net uses ~1GB.

 

[thewalkingdead]

I will do so, but where do{es} the Straight Talk "Terms & Conditions" state it for their T-Mobile SIM, or even AT&T for that matter? My weekly Titanium Backup uploaded to box.net uses ~1GB.

Hey did you know that box.com (name changed) is now offering a free 50gb account? They also have it set up so that you can share your folders with other users so if you were to make multiple accounts and link them together you'll in essence have a free for life 1TB account. I already did this and it works. Just Google box.com free 50gb and see for yourself. Let me know if you can't find the link because I have it bookmarked.

 

[ExtremeNerd]

I will do so, but where do{es} the Straight Talk "Terms & Conditions" state it for their T-Mobile SIM, or even AT&T for that matter? My weekly Titanium Backup uploaded to box.net uses ~1GB.

I've never seen this in their T&C before either, but I have been throttled. Luckily, I was using VOiP, so I then ported the number to a SIM to get rid of it. Huge inconvenience.

I thought their limit was 5gb per month. Now I have to go back and look to make sure I don't go over....

 

[DragonSlayer95]

I never seen it in their ToS, but I've read many many users complain about being throttled for going over 100mb per day for several days in a row and especially being kicked off of ST for streaming a lot as well.

 

[hstroph]

I never seen it in their ToS, but I've read many many users complain about being throttled for going over 100mb per day for several days in a row and especially being kicked off of ST for streaming a lot as well.

So have I, but nobody ever seems to have claimed to have challenged the arbitrary bandwidth reduction. Any T&C/ToS (Terms & Conditions/Terms of Service) is legally a two-way contract, "without prior notice" notwithstanding. Such throttling (as it seems in the language) should be strictly temporary according to dynamic network capacity, not for the remaining term of the 30-day contract according to individual bandwidth measure with plainly-stated "Unlimited" service.

It sounds like the makings of a class-action lawsuit if we could find a competent lawyer perhaps using the same service and who isn't greedy ... good luck on that last requirement.

We need to keep these providers honest, and taking business to competitors month-to-month with an unlocked GSM phone holds great promise. The problem now seems to be that Net10, Tracfone and Straight Talk are one and the same package provider (all owned by Tracfone, a wholly-owned subsidiary of America Movil, S.A.B. de C.V., stock symbol AMX) utilizing AT&T and T-Mobile SIMs, which limits truly functional choices.

It's looking like the telephone monopoly(ies) of last century is/are still rearing an ugly head, albeit with a different party mask.