Wow take a chill pill!!
I did not mean to imply you didn't know how Straight Talk works. This is not a private conversation between you and me.
I corrected my typo - I did mean the Galaxy S4.
Here are the gory details -
Samsung S 4G
Model number SGH-T959V
Firmware version 2.3.6
If you go to the Samsung support page for this phone (link below), the date for information / support is July 14, 2011. So clearly this is not a brand new phone.
Support - T-Mobile Cell Phones SGH-T959V | Samsung Cell Phones
According to PhoneArena (link below), the Samsung Galaxy S 4G was released on January 12, 2011. Plenty of time for my phone to be out of warranty.
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/Samsung-Galaxy-S-4G_id5138
As a final note, I did want to answer the question from the original thread on whether or not the information on the phone - contacts, music- could be transferred. In other words, can you keep all of the information that was already on the phone when you switch to Straight Talk. I was able to do this successfully as well through a product called Wondershare MobileGo.
Note that I didn't do an extensive amount of research, nor do I have any idea whether this product is the cheapest and / or the best , but upon a short investigation it was recommended by several websites, and it did work perfectly for me.
Here is the complete process from the start:
1) First, I investigated whether Straight Talk would support my phone model. You can do this right on the Straight Talk website. They step you through it by asking about the type of phone you have right now. As a T-mobile customer I was GSM, not CDMA (they tell you how to make that distinction on the website). I followed the prompts for that particular sim card (T-mobile, micro sim as required by the particular phone model above).
As an editorial note, I think that Straight Talk is more cautious than necessary in telling people it won't work when it might. If you read the rating information on the Walmart website, you can get a lot of good feedback. A lot of them said they were told by Straight Talk it wouldn't work in their area, and went ahead anyway, and they did fine. Since the phones and phone service is so cheap, if you are worried about whether it will work, maybe buy a cheap phone and test it. When I went on today for my zip code, there is one reconditioned phone for $ 39.00 that does not require a service plan. So the total cost to test it out would be $39.00 plus $ 45.00 for first month. If it works, then you could go down the path of switching your phone number to Straight Talk with some confidence.
2) I then made sure I could unlock my phone by talking to my current provider, T-Mobile. I called them and they sent me the unlock code within 3 days as promised, as well as a set of directions on how to unlock my phone (which didn't work until I sent to Samsung for repair, see above). I had heard that others had difficulty getting the unlock code from their providers, but for me, perhaps because I had the phone for over a year already, it was not difficult.
3) Before doing anything to change my service to Straight Talk, I downloaded the Wondershare MobileGo application to both my computer and also the app to the T-Mobile Samsung. I backed up all of my data. Wondershare gives you the option to back up your data on the actual computer so you have individual files that you can see that live outside of the Wondershare application, which I liked. Wondershare has a free trial, but once you've committed your data to Wondershare, you pretty much have bought it as a product.
They have a "one click" back up function. I personally found it pretty easy to use.
3) I wanted to switch my old phone number to Straight Talk. I bought a Straight Talk card from the website (I recommend you get one at Walmart instead, since StraightTalk ships everything signature required, which for me was a real pain as I'm not home that much due to business travel). Make sure you get the right size sim card - there are the small (micro) and the large - for your particular phone. You can tell by opening up the back of the phone to see what size your sim card is. I think the Walmart Straight Tallk sim cards include both sizes just in case, which is nice.
4) There are two keys to successfully keeping your old phone number. First is to make sure that you don't close off your old account before the switch. It has to be live and in good standing. The second is to make sure that you have your account number and pin correct for your old account. I had to call T-Mobile to get my pin. I think it is some standard like the last 4 digits of your phone number or something like that, but I can't remember. I would think this is one of the more important items to make sure you have correct - you must know your old pin / account number and be sure they are right before you switch if keeping the phone number is important to you.
5) I logged back on to Straight Talk and via the website told them I was switching my phone service. You deal with the new provider, not the old one, for the switch. I gave them my account information from T-Mobile.
6) I inserted the sim card from Straight Talk into my Samsung phone - and that's where I started earlier.
Once I got the working phone back from Samsung support, it was easy to plug it in to my computer, download the MobileGo onto the phone that was now on Straight Talk, and do a "one-click" restore, for all of my contacts, music, and even apps.
I would strongly recommend using some similar kind of approach for phone backup prior to doing the switch, because at multiple times in the process trying to get my phone unlocked, factory reset was the next logical troubleshooting step. Factory reset wipes out all of your data, so backing it up is a prudent precaution.
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