Question regarding AT&T and Straight talk.

[Joe the Insider]

So today I went in and set up a plan with AT&T on their mobile 2GB share plan(not prepaid). Got a sim and now awaiting my n5. I have been reading on here that Straight talk has a plan for $45 a month which includes LTE. So my question is, Will I get the same coverage, Same speeds on Straight talk that I would get from AT&T? If this is the case, I feel like its a no brainer to get straight talk instead. I am usually on wifi at work and at home, so I only need 2gbs.

Also, How would I go about setting up service on straight talk?


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[rayden8]

So today I went in and set up a plan with AT&T on their mobile 2GB share plan(not prepaid). Got a sim and now awaiting my n5. I have been reading on here that Straight talk has a plan for $45 a month which includes LTE. So my question is, Will I get the same coverage, Same speeds on Straight talk that I would get from AT&T? If this is the case, I feel like its a no brainer to get straight talk instead. I am usually on wifi at work and at home, so I only need 2gbs.

Also, How would I go about setting up service on straight talk?


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I'm in the exact same boat. I'm also leaving VZW primarily because I want the Nexus 5, and now I'm looking at the Straight Talk option of ATT. The guy at ATT tells me that the coverage on prepaid plans is different. He even pulled up a map showing prepaid coverage. However, I'm not sure if there is any variation in different prepaid plans, and I've also heard from others that it is the same coverage, except that you get crappy customer service with prepaid. If customer service is the only thing lacking, I should be OK, since I try and figure things out myself. I'm hoping some more definitive feedback can be shared here.

 

[Nexus4]

I've had Straight Talk on my Nexus 4 for about a year. Their website is ghetto and their customer service is awful. But mostly you manage your account online and just get it done. Buy the AT&T SIM card on their website (not sold in stores) and stick it in your phone. I pay $45/month and it gets the same AT&T coverage as an AT&T customer...it runs off the same towers. When I set up my voicemail it says welcome to AT&T, lol.

 

[Joe the Insider]

I'm in the exact same boat. I'm also leaving VZW primarily because I want the Nexus 5, and now I'm looking at the Straight Talk option of ATT. The guy at ATT tells me that the coverage on prepaid plans is different. He even pulled up a map showing prepaid coverage. However, I'm not sure if there is any variation in different prepaid plans, and I've also heard from others that it is the same coverage, except that you get crappy customer service with prepaid. If customer service is the only thing lacking, I should be OK, since I try and figure things out myself. I'm hoping some more definitive feedback can be shared here.

Hmmmmm, interesting. He told me that coverage should be similar between both plans. He said if you travel a lot, prepaid May have some roaming involved, but he said my area has excellent coverage and I don't travel much. We were comparing gophone vs regular plan though, not straight talk.


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[Joe the Insider]

I've had Straight Talk on my Nexus 4 for about a year. Their website is ghetto and their customer service is awful. But mostly you manage your account online and just get it done. Buy the AT&T SIM card on their website (not sold in stores) and stick it in your phone. I pay $45/month and it gets the same AT&T coverage as an AT&T customer...it runs off the same towers. When I set up my voicemail it says welcome to AT&T, lol.

Are you getting LTE and if so what are your speeds?


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[jimlloyd40]

Why not just use Straight Talk on T-Mobile. The LTE coverage is the same.

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[Joe the Insider]

Why not just use Straight Talk on T-Mobile. The LTE coverage is the same.

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AT&T has better LTE coverage near me


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[gone down south]

No one is actually buying a full price phone at Best Buy, that's just a number they made up cause they needed something to put on the tag.

Everyone at BB is buying s subsidized phone on contract.

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[swartzz]

Straight talk service is rightly $45 as you said. To set up service, you just order a simple from their website, straighttalk.Com.
You can either get an AT&T SIM or T-Mobile SIM, both SIM would grant you same service as getting service on either of these network.. Just know that data service on straight talk starts getting throttled at 2gbs, on the other hand, they now have LTE. .
Good luck.

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[dazzer87]

i read on Howard Forum (mobile) that straight talk is not good for video streaming ex. youtube and netflix is this true? Is there a diff between At&t GOphone vs straight talk as far as coverage goes? GOphone is about 60 bucks with 2GB of data and ST is 45.

 

[yfan]

i read on Howard Forum (mobile) that straight talk is not good for video streaming ex. youtube and netflix is this true? Is there a diff between At&t GOphone vs straight talk as far as coverage goes? GOphone is about 60 bucks with 2GB of data and ST is 45.

Straight Talk's terms of service specifically bans "uploading, downloading or streaming of uninterrupted continuous video"... now I doubt that includes watching YouTube clips, but who knows. It'd be good to find out from someone with experience though.

 

[dazzer87]

Straight Talk's terms of service specifically bans "uploading, downloading or streaming of uninterrupted continuous video"... now I doubt that includes watching YouTube clips, but who knows. It'd be good to find out from someone with experience though.

Thanks, i found a thread that compare ST vs GoPhone. Look like the extra 15 bucks is worth it for some. I think I will go with GoPhone.

Straight talk vs ATT Go Phone

 

[dazzer87]

Mmmmm just wondering about LTE speed on AT&T with the Nexus 5. Isn't it true in order to get LTE speed your phone has to be a AT&T branded phone? Right now Nexus is not a branded AT&T phone. If we give them the IMEI on our nexus 5 will we be able to get LTE speed? I read for some people that was not able to get LTE speed on their new phone they eventually had to give them their old IMEI phone. What happen in my case if your old phone does not have Support LTE.

 

[Higgs1]

I have had AT&T contract service since 2008 and just switched to ST. I'm getting the exact same LTE service I had with my att contract plan, which I was paying ~$82 a month for (after retail partner discount of 22%) to paying $40ish a month (discount on card purchased) for the same exact service. I had unlimited LTE on AT&T, however I know ST will throttle after 2.5gb, but I never get near 2gb with all the wifi around me.

I'd make the switch again and have been recommending it to everyone.

 

[Woosh]

Mmmmm just wondering about LTE speed on AT&T with the Nexus 5. Isn't it true in order to get LTE speed your phone has to be a AT&T branded phone? Right now Nexus is not a branded AT&T phone. If we give them the IMEI on our nexus 5 will we be able to get LTE speed? I read for some people that was not able to get LTE speed on their new phone they eventually had to give them their old IMEI phone. What happen in my case if your old phone does not have Support LTE.

It doesn't need to be ATT branded, it needs to have ATT bands in the phone to be able to use LTE. The N5 does and it'll work on ST with LTE.

 

[Nexus4]

Are you getting LTE and if so what are your speeds?


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Nexus 4 doesn't have LTE radio so no. However ST now offers LTE so a Nexus 5 would.

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[TheMimic12]

You should get comparable coverage to AT&T, but your LTE speeds may not be as fast, you should still get very good speed. I'm not at all certain about roaming. You may or may not. Nevertheless, AT&T has very respectable coverage, and their LTE is rock-solid.
If you're on Wi-Fi most of the time, sightly slower speed shouldn't pose to much of a problem, especially since you should be grateful that AT&T has great LTE custard that they're offering to mvnos.

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[TheMimic12]

Uh, not really. Where I live, AT&T just recently rolled out LTE coverage, and T-Mobile is still stuck on 2G. No way would I pick the T-Mobile option for the same price and soft cap when AT&T has way better coverage plus LTE.

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[Gekko]

GoPhone prepaid is on par with AT&T postpaid. AIO and Straight Talk are not. they have slower speeds. roaming ability is in question. see below -

GoPhone customers ( since june 2013) are treated on par with postpaid at&t customers - they use the same apn settings. I specifically asked at&t tech support and was told that go phone customers are now on the same n/w as postpaid. This means that they should in theory have same access to roaming ( as long as the phone also supports roaming partner frequencies).
Yeah, Aio customers have to go through a proxy. There's a youtube video where a guy does a speedtest with an AT&T sim (i don't remember if it was gophone or contract sim), and has a ping in the 60's. He pops in Aio sim, and ping goes into the 200s.
GoPhone doesn't throttle your data speeds. 8mb/s is about the average HSPA+ speeds for AT&T in some areas. Their LTE is much faster, maybe more than twice or three times that.

also - i don't mind Straight Talk's 2.5GB/month cap. i'm more worried about the reports of getting your data cut off if you use more than 150MB/day. anybody experience or hear about this?

 

[dazzer87]

It doesn't need to be ATT branded, it needs to have ATT bands in the phone to be able to use LTE. The N5 does and it'll work on ST with LTE.

Here is a thread about this issue about Non branded AT&t phone
INFO: Getting a non-AT&T Branded LTE phone to work

Well, I will see on Monday when my Nexus 5 gets here. Planning on using GoPhone $60.00 plan, hopefully it will work out cause these prepaid are non refundable