• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Do I need to unlock to use walmart family mobile.

msaeger

Member
Feb 19, 2012
73
1
I currently have the 30 walmart plan from tmobile. I want to switch to the Walmart family mobile plan which uses tmobile's network.

Am I going to need to unlock the phone so I can use the Walmart family mobile sim or won't it matter since it's the same network?

Also they say the data is 3g do they mean the same not really 4g like I have now or something else? I haven't found anywhere that the phone says it's on 3g now just 4g or 2g.
 
1) It should work without unlocking. It's locked to a TMobile SIM. The Walmart Family Plan most likely uses TMobile SIMs (since it uses their network).

2) 2G is voice and text (and VERY slow speed data). 3G and 4G are data. If the Walmart plan is 3G, that's what you're going to get - until TMobile switches all their towers to 4G. (Then we'll all find out if that means you drop to 2G or go up to 4G.) Walmart customers get what TMobile contracted with Walmart for. (Probably pretty much something like "hey, we have all this 3G bandwidth we're not using - let's sell it to someone for a cheap plan".) It's like the hotel and airline cheapie sites - if you don't buy the cheap ticket or the cheap room it sits empty. So TMobile is willing to sell Walmart 3G bandwidth for next to nothing, because that's something more than nothing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tube517
Upvote 0
Another note about this plan too is you get 5gb a month of high speed data. I have read conflicting information about this when I was searching for info but at the current time for 40 dollars a month you get unlimited voice, text, and 5gb of data. You an add additional lines for 25 dollars.
 
Upvote 0
So in the metro area I do still show 4g for the connection just like previously on the 30 dollar walmart exclusive tmobile plan. So everything works the same except for 10 dollars more a month I get unlimited talk.

I had to call and get my number ported because I didn't do it at activation and that went surprisingly well.

If anyone on the 30 dollar plan now needs voice switching to this plan worked out great for me.
 
Upvote 0
So in the metro area I do still show 4g for the connection just like previously on the 30 dollar walmart exclusive tmobile plan. So everything works the same except for 10 dollars more a month I get unlimited talk.

I had to call and get my number ported because I didn't do it at activation and that went surprisingly well.

If anyone on the 30 dollar plan now needs voice switching to this plan worked out great for me.
From everything I read your going to get the same network everyone else gets, they will just throttle your data.

So for example you see the 4g on the phone but if you download anything your speed will be limited, say a normal t mobile customer will have 16+ mbs down yours may be throttled to 4mbs down.:(
 
Upvote 0
Maybe but I haven't noticed a difference so far. The speed varied so much before it would be hard to tell. What's the potential speed difference between 3g and hspa+ anyway?

I can't believe they would put that much effort into it really? I think walmart is just having tmobile run the whole thing for them. The my account app from tmobile still works even.
 
Upvote 0
Maybe but I haven't noticed a difference so far. The speed varied so much before it would be hard to tell. What's the potential speed difference between 3g and hspa+ anyway?

I can't believe they would put that much effort into it really? I think walmart is just having tmobile run the whole thing for them. The my account app from tmobile still works even.
on hspa + here in jacksonville I can actually get 30mb/s download, 3mb/s upload.

I have been told that the walmart plans are limited to a maximum of 6-8mb/s down. I dont know what if any up.

Considering I never tried them because of what I was told I can not verify that.
 
Upvote 0
For those that don't need lots of data, you might check out 35orless.com. They have unlimited talk and text but only 500MB of high speed data, though they do have LTE, data roaming and tethering (from what I can tell). They are supposed to start offering more data options in the next couple of months.

The "base" price is $35 per month, and they discount the rate based on the number of new users to sign up - for January they charged $25.50, it appears for February it will cost about $26).
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones