Straight Talk Iphone 5 4G
alp1234567
Newbie

Can I confirm with an expert that the following is true:

1.  If I go to walmart and sign up for straight talk, they provide only CDMA iphone 5s that you purchase up front and they will never receive 4G, instead remain only at CDMA speeds, since straight talk does not have access to 4G LTE networks

AND

2.  You can buy your own AT&T iphone 5 and take it to straight talk and purchase a sim from them and then you will have access to all GSM + fake 4g HSPA+ networks which make it much, much faster

This is all true under their $45/mo or whatever the price is for their unlimited plan, right?

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Re: Straight Talk Iphone 5 4G
Ann154
Community Leader
Community Leader

Do you realize you are asking this on the Verizon Wireless Community forum for peer to peer support and not a Straight Talk forum?

I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.

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Re: Straight Talk Iphone 5 4G
alp1234567
Newbie

Where is a straight talk forum?

1. I am a verizon customer and am wondering if any VZ customer has made the switch

2. I've seen plenty of talk about straight talk plans within these forums, that's why I asked.

Thanks.

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Re: Straight Talk Iphone 5 4G
Kelly2004
Newbie

In the area I live the ST phones use Verizon's Tier 3 towers. All you need is an unlocked GSM phone. Up until Jan 26th you could unlock your phone yourself. Now it's illegal. Some carriers will unlock your phone for you if you ask. I have no confirmed speed tests to tell you if the ST phones get 4G LTE though.

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Re: Straight Talk Iphone 5 4G
kiwilogan
Newbie

I am becoming an expert in this area as I purchased an iPhone a few weeks ago to use with Straight Talk.  (And I'm on this website because the reception through AT&T and t-mobile is horrible in my area) 

Where I live in Southeast Georgia, Straight Talk offers service using either Verizon, AT&T, or t-mobile towers - depending on the phone or sim card purchased.  The Verizon towers only work if you use one of the two phone models that run on Verizon offered for sale by Straight Talk.  The "bring your own phone" option to which you are referring will run on either the AT&T network or the t-mobile network through the use of a sim card.  Straight Talk currently sells the t-mobile sim card for $15.  They stopped selling the AT&T one, but people are selling them on ebay.  The Straight Talk website shows that t-mobile has decent service in my area and it shows AT&T with good service in my area.  Based on this, I bought an iPhone and the t-mobile sim card and activated...and got 1 bar of signal about 4 out of 24 hours a day for a week.  The Straight Talk rep suggested I get an AT&T sim card because it has better service in my area...bought that sim card on ebay for $75 a week ago...phone still gets 1 bar of signal a few times a day.  I have heard from local people that AT&T has the worst signal in my area of all cellular providers, so it could be my area.

Years ago, I had Straight Talk phones that operated on the Verizon network (which is the best in my area).  Had up to five phones at one point actually and all worked perfectly with great signal for about two years.

To summarize, Straight Talk is wonderful if you are using a phone that is connected to the Verizon network.  And, it might be great for you if you live in an area that has good AT&T signal.  What I cannot figure out is - if I get a Verizon/CDMA iPhone, could I hook it to Straight Talk for $45/month and use the Verizon network, or will I have to pay Verizon $70/month for the same service to ensure I get a Verizon signal?  I will gladly pay the additional $25/month if I must to have reliable phone service!

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Re: Straight Talk Iphone 5 4G
kiwilogan
Newbie

According to Straight Talk reps and their website, GSM phones only work on t-mobile or AT&T networks.  Only CDMA phones work on Verizon towers.  CDMA phones don't require the use of a sim card; GSM phones must have a sim card.

Not certain of this, but it seems that Virgin Mobile (operating on the Sprint network) uses CDMA phones as well.  I'm guessing because 1) my phone through them has no sim card, and 2) I get decent signal in my hometown with the Virgin phone, while I get basically nothing with a GSM phone.

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Re: Straight Talk Iphone 5 4G
budone
Legend

Straight talk on VZW IS $45/month. However only 3G speed and once you hit the data usage limit, data throughput speed is slowed to a crawl, but technically still unlimited. Just throttled speeds

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Re: Straight Talk Iphone 5 4G
Not applicable

kiwilogan wrote:

Not certain of this, but it seems that Virgin Mobile (operating on the Sprint network) uses CDMA phones as well.  I'm guessing because 1) my phone through them has no sim card, and 2) I get decent signal in my hometown with the Virgin phone, while I get basically nothing with a GSM phone.

Sprint uses CDMA but different frequencies. So a Verizon phone won't work on Virgin even if it was unlocked. Also the data on Virgin is not unlimited even if they say so.

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Re: Straight Talk Iphone 5 4G
kiwilogan
Newbie

Thank you so much for the info on frequencies!!  I've been learning all of this the hard way

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