Straight Talk Phones

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jmugs

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 4, 2012
Posts
213
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On the road
I was thinking about going to Straight Talk since Sprint is so dern costly.

Someone told me there was no signal in Mt, ND, and SD without paying an additional fee. Are there any users who can shed any light on this??
 
Straight Talk comes in 4 different flavors.
AT&T and TMobile on GSM networks
Verizon and Sprint on CDMA networks
You use only one of those networks and are not allowed to roam.  The fine print on the data service is that you will not tether or stream movies using their service.

So if your Sprint phone worked everywhere that you want to go, then possibly Straight Talk would work for you.  But maybe you were roaming off of Sprint's network and the Straight Talk phone might not work.

You might go to a local Walmart store in the area that you wish to use the phone and talk to them.  They sell the phones and the different plans.
 
Selecting a service sure gets confusing.
My Sprint plan doesn't charge for roaming and neither did Tracphone when we used them.
I just don't want to get caught in a situation where I have to pay extra in certain states.

I hoped someone had actual experiences in the states I mentioned.
 
I have Straight Talk and have had no problem with it. I am using the AT&T flavor. I don't have any experience in the states mentioned, but if you use AT&T, I don't know why it would be any different than their native service.
 
Thanks for your input.
It doesn't make sense to me that there would be extra charges for some states.

Of course, I have never been accused of being the sharpest tack in the box ;-)
 
There can be differences in coverage between the native network of AT&T (or Verizon or Sprint) and that of an independent service that buys time from them to use their network. The differences occur when the primary carrier has roaming agreements with other carries that are not passed through to the independent, a common thing. Say that ATT makes a roaming agreement with XYZ Cellular, a small regional carrier and they agree to carry each other's calls for free. Then AT&T makes an agreement with Straight Talk (or Tracphone or...) to sell them time on the ATT network. That agreement gives access Straight Talk to the ATT owned towers but generally does not to the additional networks with whom ATT has roaming agreements. Generally, Straight Talk has to make their own agreements with XYZ Cellular to carry their traffic as well.

A similar difference in coverage can happen with voice vs data coverage - a roaming agreement may provide voice service but no data, or vice versa. That's not as common as it once was, but can still happen.
 
We've run into this with my wife's Tracfone, which is a GSM model that uses AT&T network. Friends with native AT&T phones were able to call in/out but hers said "No Service". Upon checking, we determined their phones were roaming (at no cost) but hers would not connect at all. Tracfone later confirmed they had no service in that area.
 
There were a couple remote areas I had no service on a Tracphone briefly when I came to Az from Or a few years ago. Just figured it was "dead" spots.

I have a friend (in Or) who is recommending I go with T-Mobile prepaid, which is also less than Sprint.
I suppose any provider will have those "dead" spots.

I'm still trying to learn about all this techno stuff. The string between 2 cans just ain't long enough anymore :-D
 
Price may vary from state to state (Registered address of phone holder) due to different tax structure in the various states.

Price may vary from place to place for the traveler due to roam aggrements.

Was in Wal-Mart today looking at the sign  Galaxy S-II 45/molnth (Pluse taxes and fees of course)

I pay just over 90/month, taxes and fees included for the phones Judy and I have, mine is a S-III, hers is a basic voice call only device. (But that is all she uses).

By the way T-Mobile, whom I use, has a roam aggrement with AT&T.
 
Straight Talk is a division of Tracfone, and yet in this area (the Northeast) Tracfone uses AT&T and Straight Talk uses Verizion. Until reading this post I thought that was the way it was everywhere. So I went to the Straight Talk website: "We use the nation's leading cellular providers to create a national footprint covering 99% of the U.S. population." Never noticed "providers", plural. Guess it depends on where you are that determines who you get, and there's no way to tell in advance.
 
Thanks guys. I appreciate all the low tech info. When I ask my buddy a simple question me goes big time geek on me. ZOOM.....right over my head  ???
At least here I can get plain speak about lots of things.
 
I have had Straight talk for about 4 years and have travled through the states mentioned. There was only one time I was on roam but in the mountains it can be tough to get a signal sometimes. Once in SD while at a Rv park I could not get a signal but I had internet so it didn't bother me too much. Their customer service does suck so I home not to have too many problems. Cathy
 
I have tried several - Sprint, ATT and now with Verizon and couldn't be happier...seems to get service almost everywhere, even out in the boonies! I have a plain cheap cell phone and the hot spot for wireless and they both work flawlessly. When I had a company ATT phone, I had to forward it to my Verizon phone to guarantee service since I could never connect anywhere with ATT. Compared to Verizon it was basically useless unless in a big city and even then it was marginal.

I have a friend in Montana who uses straight talk and they are on Verizon towers and he has no problems....but not sure where else he has used it.

Good Luck - the whole cellular thingy is a PIA.

Jim

 
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