Walmart and Straight Talk Wireless Now Carrying iPhone 5

[MacRumors]

Walmart and Straight Talk Wireless are now carrying the iPhone 5, offering a $45 unlimited talk, text and data plan with no contract. It was previously reported by That's It Guys. Straight Talk is a subsidiary of TracFone, and its iPhone customers will use AT&T's network. There is no indication of whether the phones will support AT&T's LTE network or not.

Like other prepaid plans such as Virgin Mobile, users must pay full price for their iPhones without having them subsidized by the carrier. Unlike Virgin Mobile, Walmart is offering holders of the Walmart credit card a no-interest fixed payment plan for $25/month. This allows customers to have a unlimited talk, text and data plan for a total of $70/month before taxes and fees.

Walmart and Straight Talk Wireless, America's largest and top rated no-contract cell phone provider, today put the power back in the hands of customers with an industry game changing offer. Starting on January 11, 2013 in more than 2,000 Walmart stores and online at Walmart.com, customers now have access to the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4 on Straight Talk's $45 no contract unlimited talk, text and data plan. To make this offer even more affordable, Walmart will be offering customers who purchase the phone in the store, a no interest fixed-monthly payments special financing offer for only $25 a month with a Walmart Credit Card.

The Straight Talk wireless no contract plan, exclusive to Walmart, saves consumers on average $950 a year when they switch from conventional contract plans with similar unlimited plans. To learn more about how Straight Talk Wireless saves consumers $950 a year, please visit: www.straighttalk.com.

The iPhone 5 is available in black or white for $649 for the 16GB model only, and the iPhone 4 is available in black or white for $449 for the 8GB model.

Article Link: Walmart and Straight Talk Wireless Now Carrying iPhone 5

[xdxdaustin]

Very nice straight talk, very nice

[maxwelltech]

Great news! Nice to see Apple spreading their products to new low price carriers instead of an AT&T monopoly.

[jetlife2]

How do we evaluate the network coverage/quality of this deal? Is Straight Talk really the carrier with its own network or do they really buy time on one of the bigger networks, i.e. the customer is really buying into the physical infrastructure of another; if so, which one. Thanks

[Menel]

Originally Posted by jetlife2

how do we evaluate the network coverage/quality of this deal? Is straight talk really the carrier with its own network or do they really buy time on one of the bigger networks, i.e. The customer is really buying into the physical infrastructure of another; if so, which one. Thanks

att

[jlgolson]

Originally Posted by jetlife2

How do we evaluate the network coverage/quality of this deal? Is Straight Talk really the carrier with its own network or do they really buy time on one of the bigger networks, i.e. the customer is really buying into the physical infrastructure of another; if so, which one. Thanks

RTFA. :-)

"Straight Talk is a subsidiary of TracFone, and its iPhone customers will use AT&T's network. There is no indication of whether the phones will support AT&T's LTE network or not."

[jimsowden]

Music to my ears! Hammer out an LTE provision in that MVNO contract, straight talk. Get some of those services like visual voice mail going and we have our David.

[KdParker]

what are the speeds like on straight talk? Do we get LTE?

[nfl46]

Funny, because I just switched from AT&T to Straight for the $45 plan.

I set it up using my Locked AT&T iPhone 5. Works fine.

[jimsowden]

Originally Posted by jetlife2

How do we evaluate the network coverage/quality of this deal? Is Straight Talk really the carrier with its own network or do they really buy time on one of the bigger networks, i.e. the customer is really buying into the physical infrastructure of another; if so, which one. Thanks

With 99% certainty, it will be AT&T's HSDP+ network (4G, not lte in the top left of the phone). I'd love to be surprised by LTE, but highly doubtful.

[Zealous]

$45/mo is way cheaper then my Verizon plan. It says that it will include data on the AT&T network. I wonder if this includes using the phone as a mobile hotspot.

Someone else please buy this plan and report back to us on the stats!

[gotluck]

Holy moly!

I may have to go for that $25/mo financing and sell my current iphone 4.

This must mean no jailbreak req'd for MMS and everything works out of the box.

I'm assuming no LTE

Color me surprised and excited!

----------

Originally Posted by Zealous

$45/mo is way cheaper then my Verizon plan. It says that it will include data on the AT&T network. I wonder if this includes using the phone as a mobile hotspot.

Someone else please buy this plan and report back to us on the stats!

I'm quite sure jailbreak will continue to be req'd for tethering. It is against the TOS, staying under the unofficial 2GB limit and I've never had problems doing limited tethering. Believe it or not, streaming video/music is against their TOS as well.

[jumanji]

that's a heck of a deal. at&t can't be too happy about this.

[Zealous]

Originally Posted by gotluck

Holy moly!

I may have to go for that $25/mo financing and sell my current iphone 4.

This must mean no jailbreak req'd for MMS and everything works out of the box.

I'm assuming no LTE

Color me surprised and excited!

----------



I'm quite sure jailbreak will continue to be req'd for tethering. It is against the TOS, staying under the unofficial 2GB limit and I've never had problems tethering. Believe it or not, streaming video/music is against their TOS as well.

Oh... well then... I guess I'll keep my unlimited data plan with Verizon then and continue to use tether.com for my tethering needs. ;D

[dukebound85]

Does this mean visual voice mail and mms is now natively supported?

[Eduardo1971]

Apple and Walmart have gotten real cozy with one another...

[samcraig]

Originally Posted by maxwelltech

Great news! Nice to see Apple spreading their products to new low price carriers instead of an AT&T monopoly.

ATT hasn't had a monopoly on the iPhone for awhile now?

[Eric E. Schmidt]

clever stab at other providers and their customers.

[jlc1978]

Originally Posted by jumanji

that's a heck of a deal. at&t can't be too happy about this.

Nah. They're just selling them capacity in bulk And bringing in money they wouldn't get otherwise. They can always degrade Tracfone customers service if the load is too high.

[FuNGi]

Sure. Until you hit 200MB/day or 2GB/month and your speeds slow to a crawl*.

*So says current StraightTalk users.

[gotluck]

Originally Posted by FuNGi

Sure. Until you hit 200MB/day or 2GB/month and your speeds slow to a crawl*.

*So says current StraightTalk users.

yes, this is a read the fine print deal

http://www.howardforums.com/forumdis...-Straight-Talk

^- Good for feedback on ST

[BiggAW]

Big whoop. This is already available by going to an Apple store and then a Wal-Mart. And it's more cost effective if you buy a used iPhone 4 or 4S.

[donniedarko]

Ive been on ST for a few months with a 4S. It is not LTE, and on ATT's backbone. For the money no complaints, and visual voicemail will not work, but you can use Youmail instead for free.

I used ST before I had my iPhones and liked it. I see no value in a iPhone 5 as I would of got one.

Very satisfied. Besides buggy stuff with iMessage a happy customer

[swarmster]

Originally Posted by jimsowden

Music to my ears! Hammer out an LTE provision in that MVNO contract, straight talk. Get some of those services like visual voice mail going and we have our David.

lol, a David 100% reliant on buying airtime from Goliath? T-mobile dropping subsidies (if they actually stick to that) is perhaps a more meaningful bet.

[Westside guy]

Originally Posted by swarmster

lol, a david 100% reliant on buying airtime from goliath? T-mobile dropping subsidies (if they actually stick to that) is perhaps a more meaningful bet.

HEY CARLY - make this happen!