How Can “Unlimited Data” From a Company Called Straight Talk be Ambiguous?

who gives a darn about unlimited data. Even you use a 3yr old clam shell phone. that means you don’t really use data. its all about $30 for 1000 minute. people are paying $50 including tax for 450 minutes. i pay $100 for 1000 with T-m0bile. And refill when I need it. I will be dropping my land line with AT&T and switching over to Wal marts plan when my minutes are used up

That’s a fair enough point jay. Like I said, this may be a great deal when it is compared to other voice/text offerings out there. My problem is that 1) it also advertises itself as being “unlimited data,” which it is not, and 2) once we come to terms with the fact that voice, text, and data are all just data, what I really need is a single price for an unlimited data plan. That will give me traditional voice and text, as well as any number of other applications that take advantage of mobile data.

Thanks for going through the terms for me and pointing out what I too consider to be false advertising. When I heard about this plan I was really excited because right now I’m using a tacefone pre-paid phone that is most likely very similar to yours; it can barely handle text messaging. Still, there is probably a good chance I will move over to the $30 plan from Wal-mart just for the cheap boatload of minutes and texting.

Hi,

While I agree that Walmart’s terms of service are misleading, a lot of people just want a phone that can go on the web and retrieve emails. Presumably the native apps on the Walmart phone do this? If so, then many people could find good value in this cheap plan.

I think this quote in your article is misleading too: “Data on the iPhone means the Internet. Data from Walmart surely means something, but not the Internet.”

Both plans offer access to the Internet. On the iPhone you can get to the Internet via a rich array of applications, on the Walmart phone you get budget access via a limited set of applications.

Thanks for the write up..

I’m not a tech guru so please explain the data in English. I looked at the phones today and plans. So does this mean I can’t browse web pages and read the content? Just e- mail? I wanted to buy it for use on the net…..Please explain

The point of restricting Internet access to using their applications is probably that their applications will allow you to stream music, video, ringtones, etc., that you purchase from them for an additional fee.

straight talk will be good or someone will sue them including suing Walmart - well see. ( class action time)

I don’t want to tether, I have home and work wifi for that

I don’t want to get music. In fact I do not like music

I just want my freakin email and right now I am paying $60 to t-mo for that, and I believe that the other cos would be more. GO WMT!!

Also, you might check the other wireless providers - “unlimited” data often excludes tethering or other uses deemed to be “excessive”. Normal terms of the trade to stop the limited bandwidth of the cell towers being soaked up by a few fantasy football/kazaa fanboys…

At last some real competition…

Does anyone know what “nationwide service” means in this plan? Does that mean you can travel all over the nation without roaming charges? Are you restricted to a footprint? Or does it mean you can call anywhere in the nation from your area?

I don’t need to stare at video on a tiny screen or listen to music on tinny speaker.It might actually be a blessing if they screen out the audio/video ads that talkover internet downloads.

They could give better disclosure of “unlimited data” in the first sentence however but even what they give is better than some cable providers who just selectively sabotage customers.

I can understand how they have to limit heavy bandwidth users with a low price system running off the Verizon towers, they don’t want a replay of the ATT -IPOD situation.

Anyone using more than 43,200 voice minutes or 43,200 text or picture messages and 5 GB per line in a given month is presumed to be using the Service in a manner prohibited above, and Straight Talk reserves the right to immediately terminate the service of any such person without notice.

And no P2P per terms of service

It looks pretty “gappy” out west, not as comprehensive as the verizon CDMA map I saw on their site, just going by memory. No roaming permitted, esp international - which includes Canada I guess, can’t tell about PR & VI, too many double negatives in their verbiage.

http://www.StraightTalk.com/Coverage

Everytime I check their cell phone/data combo are out of stock not a smooth start. The phone kiosk at Walmart didn’t know anything about it

Walmart is offering a plan similar to Sprint’s “Simply everything” at less than half the price on a better network (Verizon) without a contract and annoyances you always get from Sprint. This will kill Sprint.

If Sprint cuts their price to match Wally for new customers then they infuriate existing customers, they won’t cut the prices to existing custs - too painful.

This will really rock the boat for all cell providers. I’m sure verizon is enjoying the pain they create for the cell co discounters.

Thanks to everyone for their comments. Steve I understand your criticism, but I don’t know if I agree. On the email front, it is possible that Walmart will have app support for all email services (or at least all major free web based services), but it is not necessarily the case. Currently Verizon’s VZW service (which is basically a low functioning internet access that my phone does support) has dedicated buttons for Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo, and VZ.net mail. There is at least one major free provider missing from that list. Also, anyone who wanted to use webmail offered by work or school might be out of luck.

As for the iPhone/Walmart Internet/Not Internet dichotomy, I was actually thinking more about a general purpose browser than the applications available. While the app universe for iPhones is quite rich, it seems (to me, a non-iPhone user) that the availability of a more-or-less fully functional browser is what really makes it an attractive offering. I know that the iPhone browser does not really support “rich” flash, but essentially that browser can be used to view any site on the web. There is no need to wait for someone to build an iPhone specific app and then wait for Apple to approve it before you can access the content. App stores are great, but in my mind “unlimited data” means the type of unrestricted web access that currently requires some sort of browser.

For all of the people concerned about what data actually means, I have to say that at this point it is unclear. My real concern is that the “unlimited” touted in the advertising appeared to be quite limited by the fine print. Of course, if you are not really interested in unlimited data you might not care. If you only want your email (assuming it is supported by the Straight Talk apps) and a walled garden of content, this might be the plan for you. However, you cannot really compare it to other unlimited offerings that give you richer access to the unrestricted internet.

Tracfone is Walmart’s gateway, and the BBB rates them with a flat “F”. The customer feedback on their service is eye-opening and certainly not worthy of $40/mo., limited or not.

I just looked up BBB rating and they rated Tracfone an A+ who sponsors Walmart’s Straight Talk phone service. I get 700 minutes to be shared by two people on my current cell phone service for $80.00 per month. Why wouldn’t I want to get Straight Talk from Walmart for 2,000 minutes for two people for $60.00 per month. Almost 3 times as much talk time for $20.00 less per month and using the same network that my current cellphone plan is on. WAY TO GO WALMART!!!

Is it just me, or does it seem like there’s a lot of random positive comments here for such an obviously pointed article? Maybe I’m just a cynical person, but I just can’t see how people are applauding a pretty cheap ploy.

The whole point is that they’re claiming ‘Unlimited data’, but that doesn’t actually mean ‘unlimited data’ as most consumers would define the term.

From the Service Agreement:

“Please note that Straight Talk does not participate in Premium SMS services or campaigns. (Premium SMS refers to activities that usually involve sending a text message to a designated “short code” or buying or attempting to buy SMS services from anyone other than Straight Talk). “

I think a phone under Strained Talk is only useful as a door stop.

YMMV

@Michael Weinberg
Hi Michael, I wanted to thank you for the article. It provided a lot of insight that I otherwise never would have learned about. As well, while I think that a previous comment you made attempted to define the difference between rich internet applications and those being offered by the Wal-Mart deal, I believe that I may be able to clear up any other technical confusion.

Web Browsing
The iPhone, Google Android, and the Palm Pre all offer full web browsers. This means that when you browse a website from the phone, the website appears the same way that you would expect to see it when using a computer. That is, all the pictures will load, the site will have a nice layout, etc.

However, for all other phones, the web browser is, for lack of a better term, crippled. In these cases the web browsing experience is usually limited to text only. As well, the text will often be laid out in a clumsy manner. This is because the phone isn’t capable of processing all the information that a more powerful smartphone could, and thus tries to do what it can to still be usable. On top of that, historically, some companies have set their web browsers to only be able to go to sites that they approve. In this situation I don’t believe this will happen, but that is based off assumption only.

Email
While I can’t provide too much insight into the email capabilities of dumbphones (not smartphones), I can say that the smartphone companies have invested lots of time and money making sure that their email clients can connect to almost any email system out there. It is my assumption that if a phone is offering an email client, it will at the very least be capable of checking and sending email. I would take a guess and say that the experience is less than ideal, but will work.

Internet vs. Not Quite Internet
This section is simply to quell any arguments against Michael’s definition of the Internet as it pertains to the article.

In the general case, the Internet refers to everything the internet offers. This includes all applications which use the Internet to do work. Examples being: web browsing, email, streaming music/videos, and playing games. However, as was pointed out by Michael, the contracts version of the Internet does not refer to all possible uses, but merely a subset of all possible uses.

I hope this helps all the confused people out there. As well, for full disclosure, I should note that I am currently in my fourth year of a Computer Science Honours program and under the employ of Research in Motion (BlackBerry).

It seems that the argument here is between those who think that you should have a Cray computer, Western Union and telephone service built into a cheap service on a cheap phone - and the rest of us who understand that if you want Cadillac phone applications, you need to be prepared to pay for them. Run-on sentence or not, you get the idea.

Not everyone needs or wants to spend hours and hours texting, browsing the web and playing games on a tiny little phone. Some of us have lives.

sorry im dumb i admit it. in the first part it does say further into paragrapgh talk text and data plan They do a good job of hiding their falacies. thanx again and i think im goin with boost.

“Submitted by M.A. Ludwig (not verified) on October 20, 2009 - 8:25pm. It seems that the argument here is between those who think that you should have a Cray computer, Western Union and telephone service built into a cheap service on a cheap phone - and the rest of us who understand that if you want Cadillac phone applications, you need to be prepared to pay for them. “

It seems to me the argument is between people who think if you buy a Cadillac and the dealer says “unlimited free maintenance for the life of the vehicle” then that’s what you should get, and those who think you should expect that to mean only if you don’t drive more than 5000 miles per year and don’t exceed 55 mph.

I don’t think anyone has a problem with limited capabilities for a low price. The problem is with the false advertising, and I don’t get why anybody is OK with that.

I have use both of these phones. The internet that they offer is limited. You can look at the Weather for you area. The maps are regional only and do animate. You can look at the News / Sports / Horoscope / Movies. These are very basic and limited to their web pages.

You can not accesss any web pages or email sites. The downloads are ringtones. I have only gotten polyphonic songs (tones only).

If you can live with the limitations then it works okay. If you want to watch TV / Youtube or get your news from CNN / FOX, or email from Yahoo / Hotmail …etc then Tracfone/Net10 are not for you.

If Tracfone does not change then this will be the type of access Straight Talk will have.

I bought my phone today at WalMart. I only talk to my daughter a few times a month, so it’s a good option for me. I was paying almost $60/mo with Qwest, so I am now saving half!

I only have one concern. The Straight Talk website said that if you let your minutes lapse you can lose your phone number.

The guy at WalMart assured me you wouldn’t actually lose it for a few months. You phone will just go dead until you buy more minutes.

Would love the skinny on that if anyone knows…

I just sold my Iphone on Craigslist and ordered a new Slider phone from StraightTalk.

I am not sure what this article is getting at? Of course the phone will not surf the web as Apple’s Safari on the iPhone. Of course it will not have other apps that use the internet. I mean, you are not comparing Apples to Apples here.

But it saves you at least $45 per month! In my case, $60 per month!

For me, I need a phone to make calls, send and receive texts, and maybe check my email. iPhone is a great device, but not for an extra $2 per day.

Bye ATT, Hello StraightTalk

You have 30 days grace period.

Both

Michael, thank you for your writing. I have been very intrigued by Straight Talk as well, since it seems cheaper than my current plan. I also read the terms and conditions, however a quick gambit at the phones which are offered will clue almost anyone who uses cell phones into thinking that the unlimited data may not refer to iphone data. I think that you have, albeit very interestingly, decided to become upset by this so you could write something about it. What is the supposed legal definition of data which pertains to all information available from hard drives around the globe? My words are a bit over-spoken and I hope it will help highlight a different version of the word ‘data’ which is so highly contended. If the phone doesn’t support streaming music programs (it may support some proprietary music) then you have no access to that data. This limitation on data is in a completely different context than the stipulation of unlimited data in the calling plan context, where it is referring to any data usage accrued by the user will already be covered by their pre-payment. Straight Talk may not be very forthcoming with their phone’s abilities but I do not see how they are any worse than other companies.

By “common sense” rules, is it really surprising that a pre-payed phone from Wal-Mart for $40 or $30 a month doesn’t have brilliant web access?

I am very wary of Straight Talk, I just don’t see this as an interesting object of criticism.

hank you again for opening SOME discussion of this plan.

I have the new straighttalkpohne in my hand (well it’s resting on the table beside me) and it’s only use right now is as a paper weight! I bought the thing last nioght just about the time walmart was closing its doors. Went home to use and and began to run into problems almost from the jump. 1st i tried calling the activation number. No dice it’s too late to call, unlike the big botys ie verizon they dont staff support 24-7 so noone was gonna be able to help me activate my new phon till 8:30 or something am. Okay no prob! I’ll go to straighttalk.com and activate it..pfft! the web site doesnt even work! if you are reading this go to straighttalk.com and hit the sctivate icon and se what happens! grrrrrrr! also Im supposed to be in the coverage area, but so far my phone jusst says roming…not “home” like it should…man oh man..well you know what they say..if its too good to be true…

eric it will show roaming don”t worry phone will work and webpage worked foe me try it later maybe there updateing

The article is about walmart LYING. Period.

It doesn’t matter if you won’t use what they are saying they offer and don’t.

It is about LYING.

If it was no big deal what they are and are not letting people use then they WOULD SAY what they ARE offering instead of LYING about it.

If you, or thousands of like minded people, don’t ever need what they are lying about, then they should TELL the TRUTH.

What they are trying to do, in essence, is steal money from people who get a phone and buy time, only to find out that their LARGE PRINTED DECLARATION of “Unlimited Data” is a LIE. These are people that WANT the “Unlimited Data plan” and are going to be stuck with at minimum the $45 service fee for a falsely advertised product, and possibly the whole charge for a phone (so tack on another $100 or so).

So, please don’t be upset with the person for whom this was a dealbreaker, since he is Walmart’s intended victim.

In fact, they whole idea that you would be siding with a LIAR over a potential VICTIM makes you look like a troll for Walmart.

If you’re not, then write to them and tell them that what they offer is fine with you and many others, but it would be better, and clearer, if they just listed what they DO offer instead of what they don’t. Because you don’t think Walmart would ever want anyone to pay for something they weren’t actually getting because of false advertising.

I’m sure they will fix it right away, the good corporation that Walmart is. (Actually, I don’t hate Walmart, but I do SO abhor a liar)

By the way, on the web browser, how fast is it? What is the connection time and time to go from web page to web page? Is it like the old cell phones? (used to have old sprint dataplan, it would take several mins or more to connect to a website, way slower then dial up.) I miss using Google maps on my cell.

Thank you!

i don’t know about youse guys, but i bought the straight talk phone and service because i can burn up cell phone minutes like crazy. i was paying average of $160 a month to have t-mo 3000 min, extra line and nights and weekends. unlimited service for $45 a month is a far cry from that and i can talk all day and night. on my phone for internet stuff—-not so much, i have a netbook for that. i am in love again. ;)

I bought Straightalk this past Monday for my son.I bought the Samsung messaging phone and the unlimited data card.He has been able to accsess gmail, yahoo mail,hotmail,google,facebook,myspace,ebay,hsn,and many other sites.He was able to download free ringtones(the real ones).He was also able to send & recieve picture texts.So I believe for the $155 I spent for phone and card we have gotten a great deal!!!

I agree I bought the same phone no problems yet.

Bought my wife the $39 Samsung phone, it works with Gmail, Google, Facebook. I haven’t tried any other sites. You have to click on (browser, menu, go to url,) to go to sites that are not in the default menu but you can save them to your bookmarks. The only annoying thing about the phone so far is that if you have the $30 plan it tells you how many minutes you have left before every call.

Opps, I mean I bought the $39 LG 220c phone, not Samsung.

Call customer service and they will delete the message for you.

sounds like some of you naysayers have been living under a rock. no phone service offers true “unlimited” data — there are always limitations in the fine print, whether its walmart, sprint, verizon, etc.

What I want to know is how to hack my iPhone to use the Straight Talk (verizon) network. Best of both worlds it would be.

I bought the Samsung r451c phone on Monday. On Thursday, ATT finally ported my landline number over (and then cut off the DSL through their incompetence in the porting). I have the $45 unlimited plan. While the browser on the phone is not like an iphone or other smartphone, I have been able to access any site I have wanted. It does take a little getting used to, but I can access both my Yahoo (included in browser email menu) and Windows Live (through the Hotmail link on browser email menu) emails, ESPN, Facebook, MySpace (included in the browser email/social website menu). I am pleased so far with the phone. It takes decent photos for a phone and I have yet to drop any calls at all. The media player is good and it takes my 4GB MicroSD card with MP3 songs. It has better signal than my Verizon Motorola phone (2 yrs old) and my fiance’s LG (1 yr) at our apartment. I have called Verizon about the poor signal here, and they have checked it out and said that there isn’t good coverage available. But, I am still able to use every feature of the phone so far. Customer service has been excellent so far.

Here’s a little secret that worked for me. About a week ago I went to the Straighttalk website to order the Samsung 451 phone and the “everything you need” plan. Even though the website said “out of stock”, I went through the order process anyway. According to the Fedex tracking number I recieved from Straighttalk, my phone is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. I don’t know if this will work for everyone, or if it will still work at all, but it worked for me. Good luck!

While Wal-Marts new unlimited Straight Talk may limit you to native apps I have an alternative. I currently offer an Unlimited Talk Unlimited Text and Unlimited Data plan on an MVNO using Verizon’s infrastructure. The cost is only $40 a month. I’m tired of those companies that offer the 20mb of data or 30mb of data or they restrict you to what you can actually use the data for. If your interested in a truly unlimited everything including data plan contact me at eight six four two eight three five four six seven

I’ve worked as a technician for supporting PDA phones for one of the major carriers, and I can tell you that almost no carrier has truly unlimited internet in any of its plans— even the Cadillac plans that you’re often “forced” into with phones like the iPhone.

Unlimited data, however, does not mean unlimited internet. And all phone usage is not data; the same tower that carriers your voice and text traffic may or may not have capacity for data. Very different equipment, and you can have coverage for one and not the other. Most plans have some kind of limited data plan. Usually this takes the form of either cutting you off after a certain number of MB, or else throttling you back so that it’s extremely slow after some amount (and your carrier almost certainly will not tell you where that level is, if they do, it’s buried in the fine print).

Again, it must be clear: there is no deception, unlimited data is a fact, but if the gateways through which that data flows are limited to pre-installed, non-browser programs built into the device, the form of that data is not the true “internet” as we come to think of it. And that should be patently obvious to anyone, as the wireless system simply could not handle the traffic. Even considering just the limited subset of users that buy the high-end PDA phones and use a (limited, but still ample) internet, it strains the system to a noticeable degree. Certainly someday true internet will be wirelessly available to the masses for a bargain (less than $40/month), but we’re still at least 5 and probably more like 8-10 years from that point. The high-end users of today are paying a lot, and that is being used to upgrade the system to the next generation. So if either the economy or competitive forces cause flocks of people to move away from those high-end services, it may actually delay the system upgrades. Wouldn’t that be ironic?

i just bought a straight talk phone on oct 29 and i love it! but then, i don’t really need to surf the net. i can see where that would be a deal breaker, i suppose. but it’s still a good deal for those who don’t need their phone to be a computer.

From what I’ve read, the Straight Talk phone offers a lot of talk, text, 411 and SOME web access for a low price and NO CONTRACT. If you need more, buy an iPhone, or a laptop! Plans like these will eventually make big RIP OFF companies take notice. Laptop computers were $1,000. and up until Wal Mart stepped up and lowered prices on them. Now they offer decent ones for HALF THAT! If you want lots of access to data and videos on a cell phone, get something else. If you want to sign binding contracts that are difficult to get out of go for it!

I have Alltel my unlimited data (Tethering) at the present time is only $10.00 per month at the time that my plane changes to Verizon I will probable go with AT&T. I live back in the woods ya see just the woman, kids an the dogs an me. No high speed out here but I get good cell service so I need my data (Tethering).

I have Alltel my unlimited data (Tethering) at the present time is only $10.00 per month at the time that my plane changes to Verizon I will probable go with AT&T. I live back in the woods ya see just the woman, kids an the dogs an me. No high speed out here but I get good cell service so I need my data (Tethering).

News flash, i just got this plan and it’s better than anything i ever had in the past. The Network is solid and i do get the full internet access but because i am not using the best smart phone it’s limited to what you can do.

I had the Treo 700wx (Sprint Expensive Trash/Pollution) and it did not do everything online also, it’s limited to JAVA and Flash. Other than that is excellent and i am able to reach news and blog sites. Yes, i would like to listen to the playlist from MoMmedia.co, but that was not even possible in the Pre or the iPhone so, my eyes are on the Droid. :) i highly recommend this plan, save urselves some money do not b fools! I am using the Samsung R451C, the camera is 10X better than what i had in my smart phone that cost $699.00+tax. Palm is a reap off.

Can anyone tell me if the Samsung Slider phones works with facebook?