I don't think that was my point. My point was you can get an iPhone on Verizon, Sprint, etc. So the iPhone itself is not an ATT exclusive - and hasn't been for awhile now.
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Walmart and Straight Talk Wireless Now Carrying iPhone 5
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I don't think that was my point. My point was you can get an iPhone on Verizon, Sprint, etc. So the iPhone itself is not an ATT exclusive - and hasn't been for awhile now.
You should know before you switch that Straight Talk sucks. I've been on it for 6 months now and am OK with that because of how much it saves me, but you need to know that going in. The first two months were a bit of a shock for me. I was accustomed to streaming Netflix at work, listening to Pandora or internet radio all day, watching YouTube videos whenever I wanted, and occasionally tethering. You can do all of those things on Straight Talk, but they're all against their terms of service. If you do it a little bit in a day they won't do anything about it. If you do it a lot (some have speculated a cap of 200MB/day) they'll throttle you down so tight that you can't check email, and possibly just end your contract.
I've also had my data quit working sporadically. I've found that toggling the Airplane Mode reestablishes it. Like I said, Straight Talk sucks. But they are cheap. If you can live within those constraints, it's great.
No, it's actually quite a safe assumption. First off, imagery rights are explicit, and cannot be tangentially transferred (especially with someone like Apple retaining ownership rights).
Second off, ATT is simply a product supplier for Straight talk, not involved in their ownership in any way. They're completely separate companies, hence this whole discussion. Straight talk is a mnvo partnership between Walmart and Tracphone (a mexican company).
So knowing that, and the fact that these phones have to come from somewhere, and the new news that T-mobile had inked a deal a few weeks back to sell apple devices directly, it's a safe bet that Straighttalk and Apple have a direct channel of distribution.
Keep in mind Straight talk operates on other networks as well, this could very well not even operate on ATT at all! It could be T-mobile. Apple creates custom carrier profiles for much smaller companies than Straight talk (pretty much any european carrier would be about the same size in terms of users). Small rural operators in the US, all sorts.
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Walmart is a significantly smaller company than apple. What's your implication?
For my situation, staying with AT&T is cheaper. We get a 25% FAN discount. Right now, we're on a 550 plan with 3GB on two iPhones and unlimited text. We don't use that many minutes, so it's essentially unlimited minutes. With the discounts, I'm looking at $137.50 per month. ST would be $140 per month.
I'm thinking about switching to a 4GB shared plan, which would drop me to $132.50 per month.
To me, I'd rather stay with AT&T than go with a MVNO.
Maybe in a couple of years, I could take my fully paid for iPhones and go with ST at $90 per month, then it's worth it. Maybe by then, the big three will have followed Tmobiles lead and give subscribers a discount when put of contract.
I'm thinking about switching to a 4GB shared plan, which would drop me to $132.50 per month.
To me, I'd rather stay with AT&T than go with a MVNO.
Maybe in a couple of years, I could take my fully paid for iPhones and go with ST at $90 per month, then it's worth it. Maybe by then, the big three will have followed Tmobiles lead and give subscribers a discount when put of contract.
So no mms? If streaming is prohibited then no facetime, no gps, no audio/video like pandora and youtube? No thanks.
I spoke with Straight Talk this morning. The iPhone 5 from Wal-Mart is powered by the Verizon LTE network. So, its CDMA.
Everyone who has a GSM iPhone 5 on Straight Talk is S.O.L. when it comes to editing MMS APN settings.
if you need personal verification, call 18008765753. Its the miami call center for straight talk. You dont need an account to talk to someone and there is usually very little hold time. Ask them which network the iPhone 5 from wal-mart uses.
why are people acting like this is something new? you can bring you smartphone to straight talk for the last year????
is it because its official from straight talk?
is it because its official from straight talk?
I paid - $100 for each phone. I sold the iPhone 3G's for $300 each and bought the iPhone 4's for $200 each. When I get iPhone 5's, I'll probably break even on the costs. I don't factor in the phone cost, because there isn't any. (At least not since 2008 when I got the original ones.) As long as stupid people on eBay will continue to pay more for 2 year old phones than new ones cost, this will continue to be true.
seems like a great deal at first but it sounds like you miss out on a lot with straight talk and have to deal with a bunch of shananigans (no LTE, visual voicemail, data throttling, dropped calls, etc.). I've actually ended up with a $55/m plan on VZ for my iphone 5, 15% company discount on data plan, and 4 lines sharing 4 GB, unlimited texts/minutes. It's not a ton of data, but it's actually been sufficient for all 4 phones for the most part since most of the usage is on office or home wifi. some months, when traveling, if i want to use tethering, i can monitor my data usage and then upgrade my data plan for that month only if i need more data.
so if you've got the ability to get on a family plan with a few devices, you can get a plan that's pretty close in price and FAR better in service than those silly walmart plans.
so if you've got the ability to get on a family plan with a few devices, you can get a plan that's pretty close in price and FAR better in service than those silly walmart plans.
Just talked to a man who was very mysterious, and I THINK he said that the Walmart iPhone 5 will only support 3G on Verizon, which is way slower than 4G on AT&T. Guess I'm sticking with my 4s and doing a sim swap instead...
Well, that's now untrue. You can buy a Verizon iPhone 5 and stick a nano-sim from any GSM carrier into it and it'll work. You can buy an unlocked iPhone4S from Apple directly. You can also buy a no-contract iPhone 5 from AT&T and unlock it by restoring the firmware.
If you're on T-Mobile you'll have to set the data and MMS settings manually, and most T-Mobile data is EDGE not 3G+. Visual voicemail won't work, but that's pretty much the only feature that won't work.
One also shouldn't advertise a service as "Unlimited" and then place a bunch of limits on it, should one.
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hmm, the guy i spoke to said LTE, but he could have not known what the hell that was. Both of the straight talk reps we've spoken to do agree that the iPhone 5 from walmart IS using VERIZON though.
also, re: ppl talking about streaming being banned on ST; their commercial shows them using pandora AND netflix on an android lol http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33BKQQuZRbM
I use youtube all the time on my phone (not like a fiend, maybe a couple videos a day). never had an issue. I also stream radio for about 2 hours a day 3 days a week on my way in to and home from the office. Just keep wifi on and use it when you have it and you should be fine so long as you're not treating data like its an addictive narcotic that you have an infinite supply of.
Just in time for Apple's cheap iPhones
So right after we sign up for the iPhone 5 at $25/month payment plan, Apple will release their new "budget" iPhone (so they can remain competitive). Remember kids, you can then buy the budget priced, latest iPhone for (presumably) a lot less and stick in a StraightTalk SIM chip and cruise along at $45/month.
So right after we sign up for the iPhone 5 at $25/month payment plan, Apple will release their new "budget" iPhone (so they can remain competitive). Remember kids, you can then buy the budget priced, latest iPhone for (presumably) a lot less and stick in a StraightTalk SIM chip and cruise along at $45/month.
Nope, I agree that's shady, which is why after 2 years on ST (with iPhone) I switched to AT&T in November for iPhone 5 and LTE. Their marketing is shady at best.
With that said, their terms and conditions do make it very clear as to what you can and can't do. For the average user, it'd be hard to average more than 2GB a month (their unadvertised threshold) without streaming audio or video, both of which are prohibited in their terms of use, so in that sense they protect their claims.
Anyhow, bottom line is for someone with one line, it's not a bad deal. For me, I have 5 lines on my account, so having AT&T combined with my 28.5% corporate discount and on the mobile share, my plan comes out to $51 per line per month, and I have unlimited calling, 2 GB data per line, native MMS, visual voicemail, LTE data speeds, quality customer service, ability to roam internationally, and the knowing that the company isn't going anywhere. I do understand not everyone has the same ability.
I will say after being back with ATT, I'd be willing to even pay as much as $80 a month to not deal with the BS of ST. I forgot how bad ST was until I had to contact them regarding a porting issue with my friend's line.
I wouldn't trust anything anybody says in their call center.
/Know from experience.
//Left hand doesn't know what right hand is doing.
fair enough, but their website says that the activation is based on an MEID. So does "how to find your device serial number". MEID === CDMA = Verizon or Sprint
http://tracfone.deviceanywhere.com/...d=1082&cid=785584&conversationPropagation=end
Even if the CDMA/VZW info is correct, isn't the VZW iP5 unlocked by default - meaning you could simply plug in a GSM sim from ST?
If it's locked to VZW 3G then that's an epic fail, regardless of the price. Of course, CDMA could mean Sprint and those are definitely locked. Straight Talk already uses Sprint towers for some of their phones. If these new iP5's are locked to Sprint then that could be worse than being locked to VZW 3G.
if you did that and you put in a BYOD SIM from ST i'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that you dont have access to the Cellular Data Network menu (ST SIM cards register as "unknown AT&T", then force the phone to load the ATT_US carrier profile) and are therefore stuck in the same boat as everyone else using a GSM iPhone on ST.