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