Straight Talk and Net10 to Launch iPhone 5s/5c at Walmart on December 13

[MacRumors]

Tracfone today announced that the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c will be launching on its Straight Talk and Net10 carrier brands on Friday, December 13. Devices for the two carrier brands, which offer contract-free phones at unsubsidized prices, will be available exclusively through Walmart. Available plans include:

Straight Talk Wireless No-Contract Plan Details and Pricing

- $45 - No-Contract 30-Day Plan with Unlimited* Nationwide Talk, Text, and Data.
- $60 - No-Contract 30-Day Plan with Unlimited* Nationwide Talk, Text, and Data PLUS Unlimited International** Calling to more than 1,000 destinations in Mexico, Canada, India, and in other countries.

NET10 Wireless No-Contract Friends and Family Plan Details and Pricing

- Friends and Family 30-Day Plans starting at $50 for the first line and $40 for each additional line - No-Contract 30-Day Plans with Unlimited* Nationwide Talk, Text, and Data for each line without sharing.
- $65 - No-Contract 30-Day Plan with Unlimited* Nationwide Talk, Text, and Data PLUS Unlimited International** Calling to more than 1,000 destinations in Mexico, Canada, India, and in other countries.

Handset pricing is set at $649 for the 16 GB iPhone 5s and $549 for the iPhone 5c, with the iPhone 4s also available for $449. Qualifying customers can finance the hardware purchase interest-free through a Walmart Credit Card if purchased in-store by December 31.

Article Link: Straight Talk and Net10 to Launch iPhone 5s/5c at Walmart on December 13

 

[LordJohnWhorfin]

StraightTalk has been out-Walmarted by MetroPCS, which offers a $40/month prepaid bring-your-phone plan (*including tax*, whereas the $45/month StraightTalk price does not include tax) unlimited plan (throttling above 500MB). A much better deal, if you have a T-mobile compatible phone.

 

[jayducharme]

Straight Talk will throttle after 2.5 gb of data. That's not too bad, but it's certainly not true "unlimited." Then again, my "unlimited" AT&T plan supposedly throttles after 3gb, and it costs a lot more. I'm glad to see more and more affordable plans starting to surface.

 

[brendu]

Straight Talk has the absolute worst customer service of any company I have ever dealt with. I tried going with them and they were so awful I gave up. I could never deal with that company again. There are plenty of other prepaid plans that are reasonable and have decent customer service.

 

[WaxedJacket]

Straight Talk will throttle after 2.5 gb of data. That's not too bad, but it's certainly not true "unlimited." Then again, my "unlimited" AT&T plan supposedly throttles after 3gb, and it costs a lot more. I'm glad to see more and more affordable plans starting to surface.

Nothing is unlimited anymore. This shouldn't be news to anyone.


My question is will Straight Talk offer LTE on this plan. I was on Straight talk with my iPhone 4 and loved it. Had to get back to AT&T when my 4 died.

My AT&T contract is up later in 2014 and will be looking to go back to Straight Talk only if they offer LTE speeds.

 

[DipDog3]

Do these work over AT&T's network?

Where I live I have zero bars for Verizon/T-Mobile/Sprint. I only get service with AT&T, but I have been looking for a cheaper prepaid option.

Is there a good & cheap prepaid that uses AT&T's network?

 

[thehustleman]

StraightTalk has been out-Walmarted by MetroPCS, which offers a $40/month prepaid bring-your-phone plan (*including tax*, whereas the $45/month StraightTalk price does not include tax) unlimited plan (throttling above 500MB). A much better deal, if you have a T-mobile compatible phone.

Actually Walmart has them beat.

Walmart family mobile is doing 39.99 for unlimited talk text and Web (throttled after 2.5gb) and if someone works for Walmart and can activate it, you can get it for just 30

 

[Z8beema]

Nothing is unlimited anymore. This shouldn't be news to anyone.


My question is will Straight Talk offer LTE on this plan. I was on Straight talk with my iPhone 4 and loved it. Had to get back to AT&T when my 4 died.

My AT&T contract is up later in 2014 and will be looking to go back to Straight Talk only if they offer LTE speeds.

They currently do offer lte. It's not exactly true lte but they have decent speeds (mine attached)

 

[Z8beema]

Do these work over AT&T's network?

Where I live I have zero bars for Verizon/T-Mobile/Sprint. I only get service with AT&T, but I have been looking for a cheaper prepaid option.

Is there a good & cheap prepaid that uses AT&T's network?

This does is att towers. I currently have a locked att iphone 5 and enjoy my service. Customer service is awful but once your up and running, you don't really run into any problems... At least I haven't yet (fingers crossed)

 

[dontwalkhand]

Actually Walmart has them beat.

Walmart family mobile is doing 39.99 for unlimited talk text and Web (throttled after 2.5gb) and if someone works for Walmart and can activate it, you can get it for just 30

I work for Walmart and have that now. Actually works great.

Straight Talk is not owned by Walmart, it's owned by Tracfone

 

[lowbatteries]

Do these work over AT&T's network?

Where I live I have zero bars for Verizon/T-Mobile/Sprint. I only get service with AT&T, but I have been looking for a cheaper prepaid option.

Is there a good & cheap prepaid that uses AT&T's network?

The phones you buy directly from Wal-Mart have no SIM and use Verizon's network. However, if you order a Straight Talk SIM card to use with your own phone, it will use AT&T's network.

So you can have an iPhone on Straight Talk using either Verizon or AT&T's network, your choice.

 

[Z8beema]

I work for Walmart and have that now. Actually works great.

Straight Talk is not owned by Walmart, it's owned by Tracfone

Is there a website where I can see there plans? I can't seem to find a page where I can see all there plans and I'm always interested in getting the most bang for my buck

 

[WaxedJacket]

They currently do offer lte. It's not exactly true lte but they have decent speeds (mine attached)

That is fantastic news! Thanks!

I'll be counting down the days until I'm off AT&T

 

[dontwalkhand]

Is there a website where I can see there plans? I can't seem to find a page where I can see all there plans and I'm always interested in getting the most bang for my buck

http://www.walmart.com/cp/Family-Mobile/1076544

Here you go. They fully support iPhones as well. We have set up quite a few iPhones for customers.

By the way the Walmart phone plan is post paid and not prepaid.

 

[Lukez0rs]

So you can get the Verizon network with Unlimited Text, Voice, and *Unlimited Data for a fraction of the price? I know people are talking about the data throttling, but what else is there to be concerned about?

We currently have 3 iPhones on our family plan with Verizon and it's $200 a month WITH a discount through our employer. We have the 4GB shared plan, and we only use 1-2 GB's a month combined between the 3 of us (we are usually connected to Wi-Fi the great majority of the time). Does anybody recommend that we look in to this? Seeing how it's no contract, I can't see why not..

 

[CEmajr]

Nothing is unlimited anymore. This shouldn't be news to anyone.


My question is will Straight Talk offer LTE on this plan. I was on Straight talk with my iPhone 4 and loved it. Had to get back to AT&T when my 4 died.

My AT&T contract is up later in 2014 and will be looking to go back to Straight Talk only if they offer LTE speeds.

Tmobile and Sprint still offer real unlimited data.

 

[attila]

StraightTalk has been out-Walmarted by MetroPCS, which offers a $40/month prepaid bring-your-phone plan (*including tax*, whereas the $45/month StraightTalk price does not include tax) unlimited plan (throttling above 500MB). A much better deal, if you have a T-mobile compatible phone.

Throttling above 500MB!? That's a horrible deal!

 

[Z8beema]

Throttling above 500MB!? That's a horrible deal!

They throttle at 2.5 gigabytes per month

 

[Zaren]

Actually Walmart has them beat.

Walmart family mobile is doing 39.99 for unlimited talk text and Web (throttled after 2.5gb) and if someone works for Walmart and can activate it, you can get it for just 30

Virgin Mobile has them beat.

For $30 a month*, you get unlimited** (2.5 GB throttle) data and text, and 300 minutes voice. Activating tethering is an extra $10 a month, I believe. (It's free if you have an Android and the right app, like I had before my 4s - my only complaint with switching.) They run on the Sprint network, so YMMV with service.

* $35 a month if you don't give them a CC to auto-bill

 

[scottwaugh]

The network they use is the differentiator

Much depends on the network the mobile provider is using. Straight Talk uses AT&T network (been using it for more than a year), the SIMs its selling now supposedly work with AT&T's LTE network, there are downsides of course - here they are off the top of my head.

You get the AT&T network, but you are at a lower priority than regular AT&T customers - if capacity on the tower your using gets used up you get chucked off first (or can't connect). At my home and old work place this was no problem, but at my new work my service is intermittent when my buddy who is sitting next to me on pure AT&T is connected without issues.

Initial setup - to be able to use wireless data and MMS you have to change the settings for the AT&T wireless network (that straight talk uses) in areas that are hidden from view (the Straight Talk SIM loads the basic AT&T wireless preferences and the areas you need to change are hidden from view on the iPhone). So to change this without rooting your iPhone you need a SIM from a carrier that does show those settings (can be expired) - T-Mobile works and then you insert the T-Mobile SIM wait for the network settings to load then while the iPhone is on hot swap out the T-Mobile SIM for the Straight Talk SIM - then you can finally see the AT&T settings you have to change, change them restart the iPhone and you should be set.

If AT&T tells straight talk they have to change their settings - you'll get to go through that process again - happened to me once so far (Straight Talk, probably AT&T just to bleed customers, just changed their MMS Data settings over the last month and our phones just stopped having MMS/network data all of a sudden - that was the message that you needed to change settings if you didn't notice it).

If you upgrade your iOS version to a new version (not point updates but going from 5 to 6 or 6 to 7), you'll get to do the settings dance all over again.

As mentioned customer service is mostly nonexistant - web pages, that's about it - and they don't even have the steps you need to do for your iphone layed out - you have to search google to find other people who have done it and posted them.

The price is great though and as long as the network is good for you, its nice.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Been on NET10 for a couple of years now. With the 5s, there's definitely LTE. Customer (human) Service is the weak spot but if you don't need much communications with customer service, this is THE way to go vs. outright AT&T or Verizon plans. At least for us, it's never been as bad as some of the apparent horror stories that some convey… but then again, we've had what seems like equally less-than-ideal human service from the "big 2" too back in the day.

We use Verizon phones setup on AT&T's network via NET10- max flexibility that way. Setup has been challenging because it's been mostly a "cut down your own SIM card" proposition (actually cutting a piece of tech) but that will probably change with this launch. Those with multiple phones (families) will especially enjoy hooking up 2 or 3 "unlimited*" for about what you are/were paying for a single phone on AT&T or Verizon.

We looked at the other options like Virgin but didn't have as much faith in the Sprint network in places we frequent. There is about $5 off in that Walmart-branded (not Straight Talk) plan, which appears to be an even better deal.

However, what we all actually need is a Republic Wireless service on iPhones (the one that offers "unlimited everything*" for $20/month by auto-flipping between using wifi when available and cellular when not). Until then- IMO- NET10 (or maybe that Walmart-branded option) is THE way to go. No significant downsides that we've noticed.

And that $30/month for Walmart employees option makes me think maybe I should get a part-time job at Walmart for a few weeks just for that. I wonder if you get to keep it if you don't remain an employee (subsidized by Walmart while an employee or you just have to be set up while an employee and then keep it active)?

 

[Tiger8]

StraightTalk has been out-Walmarted by MetroPCS, which offers a $40/month prepaid bring-your-phone plan (*including tax*, whereas the $45/month StraightTalk price does not include tax) unlimited plan (throttling above 500MB). A much better deal, if you have a T-mobile compatible phone.

If you have a T-Mobile compatible phone, your best deal is actually simple mobile: $40 unlimited everything (throttle after 1GB).

For AT&T, Airvoice Wireless has: $40 unlimited everything (throttle after 1GB) + $10 long distance credit (so effectively $30). Can't beat that

----------

So you can get the Verizon network with Unlimited Text, Voice, and *Unlimited Data for a fraction of the price? I know people are talking about the data throttling, but what else is there to be concerned about?

We currently have 3 iPhones on our family plan with Verizon and it's $200 a month WITH a discount through our employer. We have the 4GB shared plan, and we only use 1-2 GB's a month combined between the 3 of us (we are usually connected to Wi-Fi the great majority of the time). Does anybody recommend that we look in to this? Seeing how it's no contract, I can't see why not..

Check your ETF, and crunch the numbers, it might make a lot of sense

 

[Laird Knox]

Nothing is unlimited anymore.

The only thing unlimited is marketing's abuse of the term unlimited.

 

[switcher3365]

DO NOT buy a phone at Walmart.

It took me THREE HOURS to purchase an iPhone 5S this weekend. It was for their $75 gift card promotion that went from Black Friday through December 7.

It's a long story. But yes, it took 3 hours to buy a phone at Walmart. Never again...regardless of the deal.

 

[corvette]

Initial setup - to be able to use wireless data and MMS you have to change the settings for the AT&T wireless network (that straight talk uses) in areas that are hidden from view (the Straight Talk SIM loads the basic AT&T wireless preferences and the areas you need to change are hidden from view on the iPhone). So to change this without rooting your iPhone you need a SIM from a carrier that does show those settings (can be expired) - T-Mobile works and then you insert the T-Mobile SIM wait for the network settings to load then while the iPhone is on hot swap out the T-Mobile SIM for the Straight Talk SIM - then you can finally see the AT&T settings you have to change, change them restart the iPhone and you should be set.

no need to do this any more, IOS 7.3 took care of this, the settings are automatic now