Straight Talk About Straight Talk

[RumoredNow]

I have noticed that -

A) There seems to be a lot of threads being started on ST in the various phone model forums
and
B) There isn't a dedicated Straight Talk thread in this GSM-North America forum

So by starting one maybe we can centralize questions, suggestions, experiences and make a reference thread for current and potential Straight Talk users.

So far my experience with ST has been very positive. IMHO, the $45/month Unlimited Everything (including 411 calls) is a great value and "Bring Your Own Phone" is a huge benefit for this community. Signal and Data Speeds are good... This mvno uses the AT&T network on the 850 / 1900 bands.

Here are the dialer preferences I've been using with Pre 2 to get 3G and Veer to get H+

dialer setting 1.png
dialer setting 2.png

(Sorry, I had to post links to my file host since I can't insert Images in this forum )

I just got USB tethering under freeTether to work between Veer and my Win 7 Laptop (x64) and test drove it. Very nice.


Anyone? Complaints? Questions? Praise? Bashing?

[laingman]

Is straight talk true unlimited data like sprint? (free tether)

What would I be giving up

[RumoredNow]

Originally Posted by laingman

Is straight talk true unlimited data like sprint? (free tether)

What would I be giving up

So far as I know... Only Sprint has Truly Unlimited Data...

But reports from what I have read is that 3GB is the red flag on ST. I've tethered and ran up over 1GB and they didn't blink. Just be reasonable and don't run around yelling "I got free hotspot here, come on and connect!" in public places.

What would you be giving up... Sprint Navigation, Sprint TV (really? is it any good?), Huge bills, CDMA... ST is SIM only.

[laingman]

Thing is I have no idea how much is 1 GB to know if straight talk would fit my needs

[RumoredNow]

Originally Posted by laingman

Thing is I have no idea how much is 1 GB to know if straight talk would fit my needs

In Preware install Netstat App on your phone and watch it calculate your usage. It can be configured to reset when your plan month does.

When I used up 1.02GB I was using the phone normally and tethered probably about 8-12 hours on my laptop as I had an outage of internet at my home...

[AwesomePalmPre127]

So far my pre 2 is working fine, though I am carefully watching my data usage. Thanks RumoredNow for recommending this!

[johnsonx42]

I switched over to Straight Talk yesterday, and so far it's what I hoped... my Pre3 lit up the H+ icon for the very first time. Yesterday I streamed Pandora in the car and around the house (WiFi off) for awhile, and also fired up FreeTether and browsed a little from my TouchPad just to ensure it worked. The terms of service are pretty restrictive if you read them literally (no tethering of course, but also no video or audio streaming, no downloading movies, pretty much nothing but web browsing is officially permitted), but I suspect it's all just legal ammunition to terminate the truly abusive users; you can likely do whatever you want as long as you keep your usage reasonable (like RumoredNow said, keep it under 3GB... that's a LOT of data).

[RumoredNow]

BTW.... For anyone who has unlocked from AT&T and moved to ST - I have made a ST logo to replace the AT&T "Rethink Possibilities" logo you see on boot up and Luna restart.

Since I can't post images here I'll link to my other post where I put the images: webOS Nation boot animation- 320x480 (Pre-, Pre+,Pre 2)

The ST logo is sized for all phones: 320x400 for Pixi or Veer, 320x480 for Pre - to Pre 2 and 480x800 for Pre 3 and there are instructions in the post for replacing the AT&T logo.

[RumoredNow]

The GF and I went out in the country to visit her folks...

She is on T-Mo. No doubt she gets a bit more speed here in town (when her bars don't drop out).

But when we went out there recently it was my first time bringing the Veer along.

Her T-Mo drops her down to Edge when we visit her folks. My Veer kept its H+ there... The neighbors have a tower in their pasture. It must be AT&T because I was pegged at 5 bars of H+ service the whole time. Tethering was a pleasure (for me at least).

[m0ngr31]

I'm thinking about switching to ST tonight with my Veer. Anything I should know about? I'm pretty excited to be dropping AT&T and saving a ton of money (last bill from AT&T was nearly $300!!).

Also my wife has an iPhone, will that work with ST too?

[RumoredNow]

Originally Posted by m0ngr31

I'm thinking about switching to ST tonight with my Veer. Anything I should know about? I'm pretty excited to be dropping AT&T and saving a ton of money (last bill from AT&T was nearly $300!!).

Also my wife has an iPhone, will that work with ST too?

First thing to know is that you won't switch tonight...

The "Bring your own phone" SIM is available on-line only. Sadly you can't walk into Walmart and pick up a SIM.

When you order your SIM(s) you also need to get the $45/month service plan at the same time (at least one month per each SIM).

They have Standard size (Like for Veer) and Micro size (iPhone) SIMs so you should be good to go. They use AT&T towers so your coverage should be the same. iPhone should work. All you need is the 850 and 1900 bands which, if I researched correctly, all iPhone (non CDMA) models have.

I've started buying my service in 3 month lots on-line. It saves a few dollars. Buy even more time and save even more.

Data use is "unlimited." Note the quotes. Reports are if you stay under 3GB/line each month there shouldn't be any problems. Most likely you wont run into any issues unless you tether a lot.

Good luck.

[eblade]

I wish they had a data usage chart, like T-Mobile did. Unfortunately, using data on T-Mobile was completely useless, considering the content of my signature.

A few days ago, I tethered my TouchPad to my Pre3, and ran a bunch of music streaming via XO. I was quite surprised at how well it worked. (yeah, I could've run XO on my Pre3, but I was demonstrating the TouchPad UI for XO)

[creepingmee]

Originally Posted by m0ngr31

I'm thinking about switching to ST tonight with my Veer. Anything I should know about? I'm pretty excited to be dropping AT&T and saving a ton of money (last bill from AT&T was nearly $300!!).

Also my wife has an iPhone, will that work with ST too?

If you have a locked iPhone to at&t you will have to jailbreak it to install a utility to allow you to modify the apn settings. After you do that the iPhone works fine on straight talk. I have set up 2 iPhones a 3gs and a 4 on straight talk....

[johnsonx42]

hey, so this may be a dumb question, but I'm a GSM n00b, having been on Verizon since before they were even called Verizon...
Is there a GSM equivalent to the "PRL Update" that you should do periodically on a Verizon or Sprint phone? Or does GSM not work like that?

[matteebee13]

Originally Posted by RumoredNow

I have noticed that -

A) There seems to be a lot of threads being started on ST in the various phone model forums
and
B) There isn't a dedicated Straight Talk thread in this GSM-North America forum

So by starting one maybe we can centralize questions, suggestions, experiences and make a reference thread for current and potential Straight Talk users.

So far my experience with ST has been very positive. IMHO, the $45/month Unlimited Everything (including 411 calls) is a great value and "Bring Your Own Phone" is a huge benefit for this community. Signal and Data Speeds are good... This mvno uses the AT&T network on the 850 / 1900 bands.

Here are the dialer preferences I've been using with Pre 2 to get 3G and Veer to get H+

dialer setting 1.png
dialer setting 2.png

(Sorry, I had to post links to my file host since I can't insert Images in this forum )

I just got USB tethering under freeTether to work between Veer and my Win 7 Laptop (x64) and test drove it. Very nice.


Anyone? Complaints? Questions? Praise? Bashing?

Can I port my number from ATT and any speed test results? I tried H2O and it seemed really slow (streaming was choppy on H+) ATT streaming is smooth, but I approach my 2GB limit after streaming one movie tethering my Pre3 to the TP.

[RumoredNow]

Originally Posted by matteebee13

Can I port my number from ATT and any speed test results? I tried H2O and it seemed really slow (streaming was choppy on H+) ATT streaming is smooth, but I approach my 2GB limit after streaming one movie tethering my Pre3 to the TP.

In compliance with Federal Law, you can port your number...
http://www.straighttalk.com/controll...ry=portability

I just used speedtest.net - logged in with refined location and hit the following marks:
Ping 139ms
Download 2.69 MB/sec
Upload 0.91 MB/sec

I used a Veer with H+ lit up and 3 bars on the signal strength...

If you tether or stream music heavily you may want to use the netstat app and track your usage. Maybe you could turn down the streaming rate on your media site(s)?

I can only go off reports that the danger level is close to 3GB in a month... Some say lower. YMMV. I only tethered extensively during one month (so far) when I had to due to an internet outage at home and got up over 1.02 GB that month. There were no problems from ST.

[RumoredNow]

Originally Posted by johnsonx42

hey, so this may be a dumb question, but I'm a GSM n00b, having been on Verizon since before they were even called Verizon...
Is there a GSM equivalent to the "PRL Update" that you should do periodically on a Verizon or Sprint phone? Or does GSM not work like that?

OK... This What is a PRL? [Android A to Z] | Android Central says it is a CDMA thing only. Good question though. I've done PRL updates and never knew exactly what it did. I was under the impression it helped maximize reception by using the closest towers... Seems not to be quite the case if you read the article. It minimizes Roaming, sometimes at the expense of forcing you to use towers that aren't always the most optimal (physically closest to you).

According to ST's site there is no "Roaming" for ST customers... Now I kind of wonder what that means if I drive through an area without ST (AT&T) towers in range...

[AwesomePalmPre127]

For everyone who is on straight talk with a webOS device, I made a patch that changes the "HOME" carrier string to "Straight Talk". [PATCH] Straight Talk Carrier String

[johnsonx42]

I think GSM phones must do some equivalent of the PRL update on their own (I do understand, different technologies). When I first started using StraightTalk (switched from T-Mobile, so it was the first time my Pre3 had talked to AT&T towers), sitting on my touchstone at home I usually had only 1 or 2 bars, though I had no problems making calls. Now almost a month later, I have 5 bars in the exact same spot, all the time. I think the phone must have received some sort of updated tower info or something that has given the same net effect as a PRL update did on a CDMA phone.

[RumoredNow]

Originally Posted by AwesomePalmPre127

For everyone who is on straight talk with a webOS device, I made a patch that changes the "HOME" carrier string to "Straight Talk". [PATCH] Straight Talk Carrier String

That's very cool... I've been running the Palm as Carrier String patch, but I'll switch over.

Originally Posted by johnsonx42

I think GSM phones must do some equivalent of the PRL update on their own (I do understand, different technologies). When I first started using StraightTalk (switched from T-Mobile, so it was the first time my Pre3 had talked to AT&T towers), sitting on my touchstone at home I usually had only 1 or 2 bars, though I had no problems making calls. Now almost a month later, I have 5 bars in the exact same spot, all the time. I think the phone must have received some sort of updated tower info or something that has given the same net effect as a PRL update did on a CDMA phone.

Both the above reminded me that I need to share the ST carrierdb.json entry I found. I've tacked it onto the end of my file for both the Pre 2 and the Veer I have. No ill effects and any "help" might just be a placebo effect...

Here's the file if anyone wants to look it over / use it:. StraightTalk carrierdb.json entry.docx

A very good how-to on modifying your carrierdb.json is in this thread by digitalunlock: HOWTO: Edit your carrierdb.json file