Comments on: Straight Talk: Keep AT&T Humming While Chopping Your Cellphone Bill in Half

By: robin

robin — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 14:49:06 +0000

I think the AT&T SIMs are back: http://www.shopstraighttalk.com/bpdirect/straighttalk/Start.do?action=view&locale=en&market=GSM4&productFamily=simcards

By: Robert

Robert — Sat, 16 Nov 2013 17:19:38 +0000

Not that it necessarily matters, but the ping times on ST (as I have experienced and as shown in the graphic above) are more than twice what you get on AT&T postpaid.

By: Nerd Uno

Nerd Uno — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 01:51:54 +0000

StraightTalk just discontinued sales of AT&T-compatible SIMs. WalMart still has some, but when they’re gone, that’s the end of the road apparently. More details here: http://nerd.bz/11CyWdD

By: Nerd Uno

Nerd Uno — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 16:01:20 +0000

StraightTalk 6-mo. refill for under $37/mo., no tax (most states), free Prime ship UNLIM AT&T TALK TEXT WEB http://nerd.bz/StkYH6

By: Ryan O'Rourke

Ryan O'Rourke — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 03:34:09 +0000

How can you keep 1 phone on AT&T with minimal features and buy new discounted phones as they are released? I thought #1) to purchase a smartphone you need to pay for the data plan, #2) you are only entitled to 1 discounted/free phone every 2 years, which then renews your contract.

By: kameleon

kameleon — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 18:28:52 +0000

Tom, did not think about that. I have been getting the "free" phone that you have to purchase the $45 card through. After shipping two of them comes to $96.30 and I get $11.50 fatwallet cash back. I will try that walmart.com trick.

By: Tom Taxsaver

Tom Taxsaver — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:35:03 +0000

Pay through walmart.com for 3 months for $126. That’s $42 a month. Use any California address with your legit email address to get the ST code. Then check out with PayPal for tax free deal.

By: kameleon

kameleon — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 20:48:23 +0000

I have been using the Straight Talk deal for about 6 months now. I started out with the Virgin Mobile deal but my wife couldn't stay off the phone so I moved her to Simple Mobile. That was a nightmare being limited to around 100kbps (forcing the phone to 2G networks only gave us 138kbps!!!). So then I got to looking again and found the Nokia E71/6790 sim swap hack. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note (was a Samsung Infuse before that) and my wife has an iPhone 4 and will soon be switching to a Galaxy Nexus once it comes in. I love only paying $84.80/month for both lines. I do have problems on soms months with the 2GB limit. At one point about a month ago I was throttled to around 160kbps. A 15 minute phonecall to "customer service" got me restored after I talked to a "supervisor". All in all great coverage at a super price.

By: hello

hello — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 02:21:48 +0000

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1646755

[WM: Great article. Thanks.]

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 07:07:40 +0000

Great post re the details of T-Mobile, thanks! I was in a rush to add this plan to my Galaxy Nexus and ended up buying the cheapest prepaid phone at Walmart ($29.95) in order to get the SIM. I was lucky and got a Walmart person who knew all about the plan (she says its very popular with teenagers who only want to text and use Facebook and don't need minutes) and said this was the only way to do this on the spot (many people had asked for the SIM only she said). Then she got on the phone with T-Mobile for ~15 mins and activated everything and started the port of my number from Telasip to T-Mobile. Apparently the number port was approved, but its been 24 hours now and its still working fine at Telasip and my $30 T-Mobile is still inactive. I had previously emailed Telasip to find my "account number" and "pin", but no joy, so I used the phone number as the account number and what I hoped was the pin. I don't have high expectations, and Telasip's service has been what I predicted (their voip service is still great, but finding a person has always been hard!) Fwiw, when I asked about this plan at a T-Mobile (corporate) store, they had no idea about it except to suggest that maybe it was a Walmart only plan. I do see that its advertised on their website as "web only".

By: Trousle Undrhil

Trousle Undrhil — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 13:50:34 +0000

For the T-Mobile “stealth” plan, just to make sure I understand this: I buy a 99 cent SIM card and then activate it on a $30 pre-pay plan which includes the unlimited text and data?

[WM: Correct.]

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 15:08:41 +0000

What are your thoughts on ting? [WM: If you have good Sprint coverage in your area with lots of low usage devices, Ting is a great deal.]

By: GomezAddams

GomezAddams — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 15:41:34 +0000

My daughter’s ST phone (a Nokia E71) will not work on my AT&T microcell. The web page accepts the phone number, and doesn’t say that it is not compatible (like a non-3G phone shows), but it just will not connect.

Did you have to do anything special to get your ST phone on your microcell?

WM: Nothing special at all. Just added the phone number on the MicroCell web site, and our iPhone 4S just worked. Keep in mind the E71 is a very old phone (in phone years). Have you tried turning the phone off, standing beside the MicroCell, and turning the phone back on? If that flunks, my guess is the MicroCell doesn’t recognize the phone as a 3G device.

By: Wojtek

Wojtek — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 17:27:07 +0000

Nice post. I like the T-Mobile stealth plan. Did you check out Freedom Pop. That can pair nicely with the T-Mobile prepaid plan with more minutes. You don't get 5 Gigs, but you get a lot more than 30 megs. I wrote a blog about a similar topic if you want to check it out at Phone Fanatic...

By: EllisGL

EllisGL — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 16:36:21 +0000

I’ve been with SimpleMobile for the last couple of months. They backbone off the T-Mobile network and have a $40/month plan for unlimited 3G / text and voice.

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 16:26:32 +0000

My wife and I have used StraightTalk for a while with great results. I use a Samsung Captivate (Android) and my wife an iPhone. My money saving suggestion: buying airtime from straighttalk.com will subject you to telecom taxes and fees. Buying from walmart.com will not, but you’ll probably have to pay sales tax. In the end, I save a few bucks by buying from walmart.com, which then emails me an airtime code that I enter on ST’s website. Also, I use my Discover card, which gives an additional 5% cash back on walmart.com purchases through ShopDiscover (discover.com). Also, the more months you buy at a time, the less $/month average.