Just set up NET10 on a Verizon iPhone 5 and it works great. It can seem like a bear to get it all set up- especially if you use the net to discover the new zealand site for setting up data & MMS and try to do that (custom APN settings). We went through several hours of following those directions and resetting the phone to factory before almost giving up. Someone had just posted there that they got their iphone 5 set up per those instructions but we couldn't get ours to work (meaning, we had voice but could not get both data and MMS working as desired).
Then, we read a little bit further into the NET10 sim package instructions to discover that NET10 had their own APN solution. Yes, the old "read all directions" mandate should be followed. A couple of clicks later (at the NET10 site) and we have a fully functional iPhone 5 running on AT&Ts network (yes, an unlocked Verizon iPhone 5 running on AT&Ts network) for $45/month: unlimited everything. Call quality good, data seems fast, MMS works fine. Just follow the guidance of the info within the NET10 sim package.
A few notes: we had to cut down bigger sim cards to nano size. It was scary using scissors to cut through technology (cutting bits of metal off of the sim card itself) but it worked just fine. Go online and locate the template you can print and then follow the directions. It appears various people are selling pre-cut NET10 nano sims on craigslist and ebay for not much money. That might be a better option for some.
We set out to do the Straight Talk unlimited everything plan but then we noticed that NET10 has a family plan discount of $5 month on the second phone and ready availability of sims we could cut. If you set up monthly auto pay with Net10, that would be a $45 + $40 plan for 2 iPhones with unlimited everything. Hard to beat if you want iPhones.
"Unlimited" is asterisked and there is plenty of info online about the limits of unlimited on NET10 (and Straight Talk, which is apparently the same company behind the scenes). The general perception seems to be you're good to about 2GB of data before you'll be at risk of a warning or being cut off from the service all together. There is also many perceptions of throttling beyond some ambiguous levels of bandwidth burn but we just got it so we don't know about that first hand. Our use of the phone is modest (no streaming video or music if not on wifi) and thus we expect to never burn enough data to ever get a warning.
We also ported a land line number. The NET10 website said this could take up to 2 business days. The wife called on day 2 and customer service said it could take up to 30 days. However, late on day 2, the landline went dead and the number was indeed ported. Customer service reviews online are generally unflattering so go into this expecting to be your own customer service.
Certain features of the $100/month "big 3" are not available here: no visual voicemail and no LTE is what we've noticed so far. Neither is a big deal to us (and the speed of downloading web pages, etc seems plenty fast).
So, in summary, do you feel comfortable cutting sim cards down to size? If not, do you feel comfortable buying your sim card from "some guy" on craigslist or ebay? Either way, go to the NET10 site for the APN setting step and it will save you a few hours following the instructions of other sites. We're now on the AT&T network through NET10 so we have the same reach as anyone else on AT&T. We haven't tried talk & surf yet (as touted by AT&T) but we assume that will work since it's AT&T underneath.
Jump over the setup hurdles and you can end up with pretty full iPhone 5 functionality for $45/month unlimited everything (or 2 iPhones at $85/month). Compared to the $100+/month for a single phone on the big 3, we save the cost of the iPhone 5 over 1 year and pocket the other $660+ in year 2+. Over 2 phones, the savings is much greater.
We went into this with the confidence that we could always fall back to a full Verizon plan if necessary. That took some of the worry out of trying to make it work. Now that it does work, we're really happy to have a full iPhone 5 with a half-price cellular service. Now if we could only get the Republic Wireless plan set up on an iPhone; that would really be perfect for us. Maybe someday.
