No data with Straight Talk T-Mo sim card. Help!

[eddiesmiles]

I've had my Nexus 4 on Straight Talk (with a ST T-Mobile sim card) since I got it in November. No issues at all the entire time. In the past week though, there have been several times when the mobile data will not be connected for hours at a time. The four bars with the H are there, but it's greyed out instead of lit up in blue. Even the tiny up and down arrows inside the bars are there, which I believe denotes that data is being downloaded and uploaded. But still, no data; browser pages and apps that use data are all not loading. If I turn on WiFi, everything works as expected. When I turn WiFi off, I'm back to no data. No APN settings were changed.

I first noticed this one week ago during the business day (from ~2pm-5pm). I tried for hours turning Mobile Data on and off, turning WiFi on and off, trying a different Straight Talk APN setting I found on the internet, and rebooting the phone multiple times. Nothing worked. Finally I caved and called Straight Talk. After about 40 minutes of them being no help at all, they concluded it must be my phone (of COURSE it couldn't be a problem on their end) and I should contact the manufacturer. Near the end of my phone call, my data magically started working again. All was fine the rest of that week. Fast forward to yesterday, it happens again, also around the same mid-afternoon timeframe. My data stopped working and I was *this* close to canceling Straight Talk for good, but it just suddenly started working again when I was leaving the office. Just when my faith in Straight Talk was renewed, it happened again today. This is now back to back days, and three days total. Each time I didn't have data from about 1pm-5pm. Mobile data was working in the morning when I left for work, then I was in meetings all day, but when I came back to my desk, it was not working again.

I'm lucky I happen to have always been at my desk when the mobile data stops working, but this is going to be a serious problem if it persists when away from my desk or when traveling. I'd be glad to list my APN settings, but I don't think that's the problem. Like I said, I've had the same APN settings since I got the phone. When I called last week, Straight Talk asked me to try a different APN setting (which I had already tried after an internet search), but that did no good either. Has this happened to anyone before? Any suggestions or fixes? If not, it's starting to look like I need to dump Straight Talk for Solavei or T-Mobile's prepaid plans. I'd rather pay a bit more per month than not have the peace of mind that my phone will work when I need it to.

 

[Scott Kenyon]

I would say this is on ST's end. The chances of this being hardware failure are really slim. If you have an old phone kicking around, toss the SIM in and see if it does the same thing. If so, call back ST and tell them it's not the device.
Their CSRs seem to not want to be very helpful to me. I've heard from a lot of people who get throttled that they say they have nothing to do with it. Magically, within an hour of being off the phone after threatening cancellation, the data comes back. Once or twice is a coincidence. Numerous reports is not.
For cost effectiveness, I'd check out AT&T if you have a company discount with them. I'm paying something like $46 a month for 3gb data, 450mins and no texts. I use Google Voice for texts so I don't require the extra $20 service. Even for an extra $16 a month to not have to deal with these problems (considering the $50 ST plan) I'd say it may be worth it. Also, check out the new AT&T prepaid option, or go discuss coverage with a T-mo rep.
In any event, good luck sir.

 

[nickacs]

I know you have TMobile ST service, but I just had to reset/redo my APN settings this past week on my N4 with ST AT&T service. Instead of the APN being like att.mvno, it's like tfdate now and some other new crap. I didn't know until I went on ST's message forum and saw a boatload of people's data get shut off/stopped working starting around June 16th weekend. Lo and behold, even on ST's website, they have a page showing the new APN settings for AT&T.

Might want to check their site to see for TMobile APN possible changes? Or just quit after this cycle ends and port over to TMobile $30 plan for 4gb data and 100min talk! I'm seriously thinking about it

 

[runtmms]

I've been using Solavei since January and have been very happy. I read too many ST nightmare stories to want to deal with them. The $30 T-Mobile plan is a great deal if you can make the 100 minutes work. I couldn't, so Solavei was the next best value for me - and that was before considering the referral program.

One other thought - do you have any friends in your area on T-Mobile that are having (or not having) data issues? Some people have reported a couple of sketchy days while T-Mobile is working on upgrading towers in their area - so there's a chance it really isn't ST (but I doubt it. )

Sent from my Nexus 4 on Solavei

 

[tedseeley]

I am having the same issue with my Samsung Galaxy Nexus. About two weeks ago my data suddenly stooped working and hasn't since. I have called customer service, opened a support ticket through email and gotten a walk through on Facebook messaging. They keep telling me to input the same APN setting that I already have! In my research I have found that people are having similar issues with AT&T sim cards but their alternative APN settings are no help for me with my T-Mobile network based sim card. Upon my inquiry Straight Talk says they will sell me a AT&T sim card I could try. I really don't want to waste $15 bucks to find out that their mediocre service still won't work with the new sim card.

 

[tonypf]

We have two phones using Straight Talk (AT&T sim) for over 6 months. Last week I used my wife's Nexus 4 while on vacation and had no data service. This week I used the Samsung Galaxy S Captivate and have no data service. The phone operations work well on both phones.
A call to Straight Talk customer support resulted in their telling me to call back using a 2nd phone. Even though I easily opened the settings menu while talking to them, they would tell me nothing.
One last problem I discovered is the inability to get voice mail if the voice mail phone is incapacitated. That is another problem I had last week as I was awaiting a sim for the Captivate while my personal Nexus 4 was off for repair. AT&T provides this service via the web and Straight Talk appears to use the AT&T voice mail system, but you can't get to it via the web.