Straight Talk Sim Cards - $4.99 til 9/30

[podspi]

I haven't activated my ST sim so I can't answer this directly but according to this, as long as you leave the proxy settings blank in the APN settings they won't throttle you.

YMMV of course, especially since I haven't tried it yet

 

[ImDonly1]

Why don't get straight talk with tmobile sim? The tmobile sim seems to have way higher caps, I don't remember ever reading about anyone getting a call for data use on the tmobile sim.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Why don't get straight talk with tmobile sim? The tmobile sim seems to have way higher caps, I don't remember ever reading about anyone getting a call for data use on the tmobile sim.

I've read this over at HoFo as well. Tmobile caps, if they exist, don't seem to be enforced like those on ATT. To be on the safe side, conventional wisdom I've read most places say 100mb per day up to 2gb per month.

 

[ponyo]

After doing some side by side signal test between Straight Talk AT&T and regular AT&T on a long road trip, there is clear difference in signal quality and strength between the two. In rural areas, contract AT&T stays on 3g most of the time while Straight Talk AT&T will drop down to 2G EDGE or even G for prolonged periods. The difference was striking and easy to notice. You do get what you pay for. I'm still extremely happy with Straight Talk AT&T for $45 but the coverage and the speed isn't anywhere near the same as contract AT&T.

 

[Infrnl]

After doing some side by side signal test between Straight Talk AT&T and regular AT&T on a long road trip, there is clear difference in signal quality and strength between the two. In rural areas, contract AT&T stays on 3g most of the time while Straight Talk AT&T will drop down to 2G EDGE or even G for prolonged periods. The difference was striking and easy to notice. You do get what you pay for. I'm still extremely happy with Straight Talk AT&T for $45 but the coverage and the speed isn't anywhere near the same as contract AT&T.

This is interesting info. A guy I work with has att straight talk and he typically has better signal than me. Maybe it's my pos iPhone 4

 

[ponyo]

This is interesting info. A guy I work with has att straight talk and he typically has better signal than me. Maybe it's my pos iPhone 4

In major cities and towns, it's similar. It was only noticeable out in extreme rural areas. Test phone was iPhone 4S on post paid AT&T and original Galaxy Tab 7" on Straight Talk AT&T. I was using the Tab mounted with Google Navigation so I was able to keep track of the signal the entire drive. iPhone 4S was used for FaceTime. I have to say FaceTime works pretty well even on 2G EDGE as long as you have at least 2 bars. I was pleasantly surprised. With 3G the quality is the same as WiFi.

 

[Infrnl]

Got my card activated today but need to figure out where apple fricken moved the apn settings to on ios6

 

[ponyo]

Got my card activated today but need to figure out where apple fricken moved the apn settings to on ios6

You have to use some kind of editor unless you have the factory unlocked phone. I was like WTF too when I tried to update APN setting on my wife's 4S the first time. There is a website which will automate the process for you.

 

[vi edit]

In major cities and towns, it's similar. It was only noticeable out in extreme rural areas. Test phone was iPhone 4S on post paid AT&T and original Galaxy Tab 7" on Straight Talk AT&T. I was using the Tab mounted with Google Navigation so I was able to keep track of the signal the entire drive. iPhone 4S was used for FaceTime. I have to say FaceTime works pretty well even on 2G EDGE as long as you have at least 2 bars. I was pleasantly surprised. With 3G the quality is the same as WiFi.

I'm not sure that's fair, that's more of a shortcoming in the device rather than the network. And it's another anecdotal example, but the wifi on iPad picks up a much stronger wifi signal than my iPhone does. There are parts of my house where phone can't grab wifi but my iPad still has a bar or two. I'm guessing the antennas are larger or more idealy placed in tablets given their larger physical dimensions.

 

[ponyo]

It turns out I was completely wrong on Straight Talk AT&T having worse signal and coverage than postpaid AT&T. It turns out that isn't true. The culprit wasn't Straight Talk but rather the poor cell radio on my Galaxy Tab. I switched to my Galaxy Nexus on the drive back and that matched the signal of AT&T iPhone 4S. I got 3G H signal most of the time, same as the 4S. When I swapped the SIM into the Galaxy Tab, it went back to mostly 2G EDGE and G with brief time on 3G H.

So false alarm. Straight Talk AT&T seems to have the same coverage and signal as postpaid AT&T.

 

[Infrnl]

You have to use some kind of editor unless you have the factory unlocked phone. I was like WTF too when I tried to update APN setting on my wife's 4S the first time. There is a website which will automate the process for you.

Thanks, ill look for it when I get home. Can't wait to get get rid of my iphone4 and try an android based phone.

 

[vi edit]

It turns out I was completely wrong on Straight Talk AT&T having worse signal and coverage than postpaid AT&T. It turns out that isn't true. The culprit wasn't Straight Talk but rather the poor cell radio on my Galaxy Tab. I switched to my Galaxy Nexus on the drive back and that matched the signal of AT&T iPhone 4S. I got 3G H signal most of the time, same as the 4S. When I swapped the SIM into the Galaxy Tab, it went back to mostly 2G EDGE and G with brief time on 3G H.

So false alarm. Straight Talk AT&T seems to have the same coverage and signal as postpaid AT&T.

Weird. I actually read that wrong the first time and though the iPhone was on ST. I read "postpaid" an my mind thought "prepaid". Point still stands though that you'd have to compare similar devices.

Anywhoo...good to know. I couldn't think of any reason how or why similar devices would get signal differences between the two. It's my understanding that they are hitting the same exact towers. I really didn't think they had any way of throttling down reception based up connected device.

 

[Infrnl]

I ended up using unlockit but I am not sure how the settings are written. I wanted to leave the proxy settings blank as mentioned. It works but my signal seems to be weaker at times than postpaid unless using this SIM updates the signal better.
I'll do more comparing, etc this week. Att service as a whole seems slow where I live. I still might move to Verizon, not sure. Verizon has lte here and will load pages instantly. Att has some serious lag most of the time; drives me nuts.
I've been using the net much more now so the lag is more noticeable than the past.

 

[blb1980]

You're going to love the phone. Regarding Straight Talk, when you set up the APN Settings on your Galaxy Nexus, you can skip and not enter the Proxy and the Port. (proxy.mvno.tracfone.com and 80) I found I had more connection error issues when using the Proxy and Port with random "access forbidden" messages and data outages. You can try both like I did but I found the data and the service to work better with the proxy and port field left blank. Some people claim if you leave it blank they don't track your usage and you can use 5+ gb data without any throttle but I don't know how valid that is.

I am forever indebted to you! I have been having this stupid access forbidden issue for about a month now. It hadn't done it since I had the phone and I've had the ATT SIM on the S2 since about Feb of 2012 so hopefully now that I've taken out these settings, it won't happen again.