This is not from my personal experience, but from a good friend's experience. Straight Talk Wireless is a Walmart wireless plan that offers unlimited everything for a reasonable price every month with no contract. Well I have heard good and bad things from them, but I have been hearing from a few people including a good friend that their unlimited Internet is not really unlimited. My friend was notified from them that they were suspending their phone because of their Internet use was exceeding the allowed amount - but it was unlimited! Just as a heads up, he is not the only one that I have heard this from.
Oh wow! I was with Straight Talk for about 2 years, but I didn't have a smartphone at the time, so I wasn't on the internet that much. I heard about something like this happening with another phone company recently. Straight Talk uses the Verizon network with their basic phones and the AT&T and T-Mobile networks with their smartphones. So although it's only sold at Walmart or online, it's not really a Walmart plan.
I knew this low monthly unlimited thing wouldn't last long. Sooner or later they all will go up and put limits on everything, just like Boost Mobile started charging extra tax and change the daily unlimited from 2 dollars to 3 dollars. I was thinking about switching to Straight Talk because I just can't deal with the IPhone anymore. I know they will suspend me because I am always on the internet on my phone. What did they think was gonna happen? Hellooo its unlimited internet of course people are going to take advantage of it.
It was only a matter of time. Unlimited internet is only a marketing gimmick. There should be some type of warning. The biggest wireless companies will slow down your internet speed if you go over the allotted amount.
That is crazy how can you be over your limit if it is unlimited... I had a friend of mine that was having the same problem and when she called them about it they said she went over the limit allowed. and of course she replied, how do you go over unlimited. Of course she just cancelled her service with them, because they had no answer.
I have to say that is very odd, I have been with Straight Talk for two years and I have had my Non Smartphone and now my Smartphone. I have never had this issue. I cannot say it is far fetched, because with AT&T if you have the Unlimited Smartphone Data plan if you hit a certain data amount they will slow your internet down. Straigh Talk may have adapted that method too!
Yeah I was a bit surprised myself as I have been on unlimited plans before with absolutely no problems (but never personally had Straight Talk.) My friend who just had this problem is a truck driver so he probably does use his Internet a bit more then others being he is over the road much more then home. But still they say unlimited, it should be unlimited.
Thank you for sharing this info. It is good to know before start thinking to use something "too good to be true". Thumb up!
You are welcome! It is possible that my friend goes crazy with his Internet usage since he is an over the road truck driver and this is his Internet, but the fact that they claim unlimited and then all of a sudden you are going over just doesn't sound right to me. Apparently it isn't really unlimited. I think they should let people know before getting a notice with intent to suspend it or at least state it somewhere that people will see before purchasing the phone.
Thanks for the tip. I have been thinking about buying a Straight Talk cell phone for my boyfriend. I might still get one because I like the prices, but I will remember that unlimited doesn't really mean unlimited. What a bunch of crap! I went through a similar issue a few years back with T-Mobile, and I'm on a contract plan.
Thanks for the heads up...I've heard a mixed bag of things about it but hadn't heard that one yet. That sucks .
Virgin Mobile is a great prepaid company with options if you are looking for a phone for your boyfriend. I have had them since December after leaving the contract companies behind. I have some days that I really use the data a lot in a day and have had no problems. But you just would want to check coverage in your area.
I tried porting a number to ST wireless. After 30 days and dozens of phone calls to their 'customer service', I finally gave up. If you go to ST, save yourself a LOT of headache and just get a new number. lol
Wow that sounds like a headache! I don't plan on going with Straight Talk myself, not after all the problems my one friend had. You gave up on porting the number or you gave up on Straight Talk altogether?
I'm from Canada and I can't believe the deals you can get on cell service across the border. I've compared plans before and it seems like they charge 50%-100% more for the same equivalent plans. Ridiculous.
Wow, really? Is that just for the contract plans or the prepaid plans too? And of course if you get a phone in the states but live in Canada, everybody that calls you will probably be charged international rates on their phone bill so that probably wouldn't work out well. Tho your phone would probably be quiet!
Your friend is actually the one at fault right here. If you haven't ever heard of fair usage policies, I'd start reading into it... He probably has been warned multiple times when going over and at least warned once while activating his plan at Walmart (or online, you can do either for ST). Did you really think "unlimited" = "unlimited"? They throttle the user if they continuously use a lot of data in a congested area or network area. And then if the offence is pulled multiple times, bam, you're gone from the network... In Canada we have Wind and Mobilicity, they both offer unlimited data as well but you get throttled after around 5-6 GB usage per month.
It's certainly deceptive advertising. The cable companies, such as Cox, got into trouble for doing stuff like this in the past - throttling the download speeds of users who were downloading a lot of stuff. So technically, it was still "unlimited", but at a much slower speed.
