can an unlocked droid bionic work on Walmart straight talk?

Jun 28, 2011
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hi i am kinda new to these Forums. my parents recently offered me to go 50/50 on an unlimited plan with straight talk after AT&T charged me with an 87 dollar bill. now i am on my grandma's family plan with AT&T but i am looking at canceling my line.

now here is the problem. i don't want to down grade from my Motorola ATRIX to a sluggish less powerful samsung precedent. so could someone please tell me if the Droid bionic or droid 3, and yes maybe even the photon 4G would do just fine. i wonder if any of these phones will work on straight talk's network if bought unlocked. and i don't want to be limited to anything less than 3G service. now i am kinda on a budget here of under $300 but i do have an uncle who works full time at Motorola mobility so maybe i could get a discount from him.

if anything else please respond to me with an answer to my question. thanks android central and have a great day
 

KillerG

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hi i am kinda new to these Forums. my parents recently offered me to go 50/50 on an unlimited plan with straight talk after AT&T charged me with an 87 dollar bill. now i am on my grandma's family plan with AT&T but i am looking at canceling my line.

now here is the problem. i don't want to down grade from my Motorola ATRIX to a sluggish less powerful samsung precedent. so could someone please tell me if the Droid bionic or droid 3, and yes maybe even the photon 4G would do just fine. i wonder if any of these phones will work on straight talk's network if bought unlocked. and i don't want to be limited to anything less than 3G service. now i am kinda on a budget here of under $300 but i do have an uncle who works full time at Motorola mobility so maybe i could get a discount from him.

if anything else please respond to me with an answer to my question. thanks android central and have a great day

From what I understand...you can't unlock a CDMA device to use on a different network. I think you need a GSM varient, so if you unlocked your Atrix, you could probably still use that. I'm not completely sure, but my brother is on Straight Talk and he needs a SIM card.
 
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Jun 28, 2011
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From what I understand...you can't unlock a CDMA device to use on a different network. I think you need a GSM varient, so if you unlocked your Atrix, you could probably still use that. I'm not completely sure, but my brother is on Straight Talk and he needs a SIM card.
that opens up a whole new light to me if i can still use my ATRIX. its weird my parents have cdma straight talk phones but i know track phone also provides sim cards. if this could all work out would i still have 3G data coverage on my ATRIX? also would i be able to use the $45 a month unlimited plan with my ATRIX? thank you if you can further answer my questions
 

KillerG

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that opens up a whole new light to me if i can still use my ATRIX. its weird my parents have cdma straight talk phones but i know track phone also provides sim cards. if this could all work out would i still have 3G data coverage on my ATRIX? also would i be able to use the $45 a month unlimited plan with my ATRIX? thank you if you can further answer my questions

See I can't be completely sure it would work, but from my understanding I don't think you can unlock CDMA phones. GSM phones usually you can unlock and put it in a GSM network, but I don't know about straight talk or tracphone. But if you could get it running on their network, you should be able to use the $45 plan. I don't know, because they use other carriers networks to run theirs.
 
Jun 28, 2011
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True, but I thought they won't let it on any GSM networks in the US.

i am pretty sure rogers and bell smartphone's are usually friendly with AT&T radio's and frequencies. i remember hearing the last AC podcast and jerry answered a question about someone wanting to buy a European SGSII. Jerry referred him to Rogers Canadian SGSII. same radio's and it probably would have costed him alot less compared to a European or unlocked american version of the SGSII. all in all its all (yeah i said all 3 times, actualy make that 4 now) so its just about what radio's your phone has and if they can talk to your carriers cell towers.
 

KillerG

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i am pretty sure rogers and bell smartphone's are usually friendly with AT&T radio's and frequencies. i remember hearing the last AC podcast and jerry answered a question about someone wanting to buy a European SGSII. Jerry referred him to Rogers Canadian SGSII. same radio's and it probably would have costed him alot less compared to a European or unlocked american version of the SGSII. all in all its all (yeah i said all 3 times, actualy make that 4 now) so its just about what radio's your phone has and if they can talk to your carriers cell towers.

But we're talking straight talk...I don't know if they let you use unlocked phones on their network.
 

nfalbo

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But we're talking straight talk...I don't know if they let you use unlocked phones on their network.
If you want to goprepaid with a smart phone I urging mobile is one of the besting this category. You will not beable to use the Bionic on straight talk. Plus to even do that you would have to buy the Bionic off contract which will be about $600 plus you will be paying for a phone that has features you will not be able to use like LTE. Shop around first before you try porting phones.
 

tech_head

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From what I read Straight Talk/Tracfone does not allow unlocked GSM phone on their network.
There SIM cards don't work even if your phone is unlocked.
 

Kevin OQuinn

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Isn't Straight Talk also ran off of T-Mobile's network? So anything designed to use AT&T's bands wouldn't get 3G service on Straight Talk. Or am I getting that confused with Simple Mobile?

You'll also be sacrificing a bit in terms of service, because most of those "unlimited" prepaid plans don't include data for a smartphone. Read the fine print.
 
Jun 28, 2011
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sorry i did not tell you this earlier but the video reveals that i can still keep my ATRIX and not have to buy a CDMA phone from verizon. case being thank you for helping me decide what to do. your work here is done on this topic :)
 

Matthew Kreh

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I know this thread is from 2011, but I have my Bionic (HW B) working on Family Mobile's unlimited plan if anyone still wants to know how let me know. The coverage is good when I'm outside or by a window, but drops when I go inside. Did anyone else have this problem and find a way to boost signal strength?

The connection shows up as HSPA:11 and speed test.net shows ~800KB down/ 180KB up
 

calarco3

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Could you give me instructions on how to do that?

- - - Updated - - -

I know this thread is from 2011, but I have my Bionic (HW B) working on Family Mobile's unlimited plan if anyone still wants to know how let me know. The coverage is good when I'm outside or by a window, but drops when I go inside. Did anyone else have this problem and find a way to boost signal strength?

The connection shows up as HSPA:11 and speed test.net shows ~800KB down/ 180KB up

Walk through?
 

dberthia

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I was contemplating StraightTalk, but it looks like they expressly prohibit all audio or video streaming. From the Terms of Service:

6. STRAIGHT TALK UNLIMITED PLAN INTENDED USE: Straight Talk Unlimited Plans may ONLY be used with Straight Talk Wireless Home Phone Equipment for person to person Voice Calls. The Straight Talk Unlimited Plans MAY NOT be used for any other purpose. Examples of prohibited uses include, without limitation, the following: (i) continuous mobile to mobile or mobile to landline voice calls; (ii) automated text or picture messaging to another mobile device or e-mail address; (iii) uploading, downloading or streaming of audio or video programming or games; (iv) server devices or host computer applications, including, but not limited to, Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, automated machine-to-machine connections or peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing; or (v) as a substitute or backup for private lines or dedicated data connections. A person engaged in prohibited uses may have his/her service terminated without notice or a refund.