Straight Talk Sim Cards - $4.99 til 9/30

[Dankk]

I got my Straight Talk AT&T SIM today. I'm upgrading to a Galaxy Nexus, which will be coming tomorrow. I'll test my network speeds and post the results when it's set up. 🙂

 

[lothar]

I got my Straight Talk AT&T SIM today. I'm upgrading to a Galaxy Nexus, which will be coming tomorrow. I'll test my network speeds and post the results when it's set up. 🙂

:thumbsup:

 

[Dankk]

:thumbsup:

I'm excited. Coming from a crappy Samsung Galaxy Precedent, it will be a world of difference.

Note to self: Always spend a little extra for the nicer phone. Worth it in the long haul. ^_^

 

[ponyo]

I got my Straight Talk AT&T SIM today. I'm upgrading to a Galaxy Nexus, which will be coming tomorrow. I'll test my network speeds and post the results when it's set up. 🙂

You're going to love the phone. Regarding Straight Talk, when you set up the APN Settings on your Galaxy Nexus, you can skip and not enter the Proxy and the Port. (proxy.mvno.tracfone.com and 80) I found I had more connection error issues when using the Proxy and Port with random "access forbidden" messages and data outages. You can try both like I did but I found the data and the service to work better with the proxy and port field left blank. Some people claim if you leave it blank they don't track your usage and you can use 5+ gb data without any throttle but I don't know how valid that is.

 

[Dankk]

Regarding Straight Talk, when you set up the APN Settings on your Galaxy Nexus, you can skip and not enter the Proxy and the Port. (proxy.mvno.tracfone.com and 80) I found I had more connection error issues when using the Proxy and Port with random "access forbidden" messages and data outages. You can try both like I did but I found the data and the service to work better with the proxy and port field left blank. Some people claim if you leave it blank they don't track your usage and you can use 5+ gb data without any throttle but I don't know how valid that is.

Hot dog, you're right.

Thanks a ton for the advice. I noticed the difference immediately when I ran the SpeedTest.net Android app. Using Straight Talk's proxy, I couldn't even get the test to run... period. It kept erroring out due to network problems or something like that.

I did what you said and removed the proxy entries from the APN info. Facebook is actually loading properly now. Youtube videos actually play when I tell them to. 🙂 And, I can run speed tests with zero issues. So something is definitely sketchy with Straight Talk's proxy nonsense.

In a completely spur-of-the-moment, unscientific experiment, I ran the speed test both indoors and outdoors. (Notice the test is being measured in kilobytes)

Outdoors:

Indoors:

To be clear, this is with a Straight Talk AT&T SIM on my new Galaxy Nexus. (Loving the new phone, by the way.)

 

[jpeyton]

Those speeds look a little low. I'm getting 3MB/s down right now. Does AT&T have bad reception in your area?

Your ping is faster than mine, however.

 

[Dankk]

Those speeds look a little low. I'm getting 3MB/s down right now. Does AT&T have bad reception in your area?

Your ping is faster than mine, however.

Not sure :\ If you look at my screenshots, you'll notice that I have full bars in the first one, and 3/4 bars in the second. I'm not sure what kind of a difference that makes though.

Yeah, my speeds look REALLY slow compared to yours. ~200 kilobytes to 3 megabytes? That means your service is a whopping fifteen times faster than mine.

 

[jpeyton]

Tested again right now and got 2836 kbps down. The highest I ever got was at 2AM, 6726 kbps down. During peak daytime hours, it dips as low as 1200 kbps down.

 

[lothar]

Hot dog, you're right.

Thanks a ton for the advice. I noticed the difference immediately when I ran the SpeedTest.net Android app. Using Straight Talk's proxy, I couldn't even get the test to run... period. It kept erroring out due to network problems or something like that.

I did what you said and removed the proxy entries from the APN info. Facebook is actually loading properly now. Youtube videos actually play when I tell them to. 🙂 And, I can run speed tests with zero issues. So something is definitely sketchy with Straight Talk's proxy nonsense.

In a completely spur-of-the-moment, unscientific experiment, I ran the speed test both indoors and outdoors. (Notice the test is being measured in kilobytes)

Outdoors:
http://i.imgur.com/CzUPG.jpg

Indoors:
http://i.imgur.com/KNiu9.jpg[

To be clear, this is with a Straight Talk AT&T SIM on my new Galaxy Nexus. (Loving the new phone, by the way.)

Those speeds are horrible.
I've never gotten that low on ANY speedtest result on Straight Talk.

 

[Ksyder]

argh why do they require signature confirmation on the Sim card delivery... 2nd day I haven't been home to sign for it.

 

[ponyo]

Not sure :\ If you look at my screenshots, you'll notice that I have full bars in the first one, and 3/4 bars in the second. I'm not sure what kind of a difference that makes though.

Yeah, my speeds look REALLY slow compared to yours. ~200 kilobytes to 3 megabytes? That means your service is a whopping fifteen times faster than mine.

Your speed isn't that horrible. It's actually pretty close to his. His is not 15x faster. Your SpeedTest setting was changed to show kB/s. jpeyton shows default kbps. If you change his results to kB/s, it would be ~354. Faster than your 256 but not even 2x fast. Your 256 kB/s is around 2048 kbps. Which is respectable.

Here's my last 8 speedtest with Straight Talk.

 

[gorcorps]

argh why do they require signature confirmation on the Sim card delivery... 2nd day I haven't been home to sign for it.

yeah, I found that odd too

Luckily my apartment office signs for it and if I get home before they leave I can grab it.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Your speed isn't that horrible. It's actually pretty close to his. His is not 15x faster. Your SpeedTest setting was changed to show kB/s. jpeyton shows default kbps. If you change his results to kB/s, it would be ~354. Faster than your 256 but not even 2x fast. Your 256 kB/s is around 2048 kbps. Which is respectable.

Good catch. Mystery solved (damn meddling kids!)

 

[Dankk]

Your speed isn't that horrible. It's actually pretty close to his. His is not 15x faster. Your SpeedTest setting was changed to show kB/s. jpeyton shows default kbps. If you change his results to kB/s, it would be ~354. Faster than your 256 but not even 2x fast. Your 256 kB/s is around 2048 kbps. Which is respectable.

He said "3MB/S", with a capital B, which implies bytes and not bits. I assumed that his network connection was literally three whole megabytes per second. Change that to megabits, and yeah, it's much more comparable.

I set SpeedTest to measure in bytes instead of bits, because bits annoy me and I've always become more accustomed to bytes. jpeyton probably missed that little detail and assumed my test was in kilobits, and not kilobytes.

So yeah, jpeyton, you're speed really isn't a whole lot better than mine.

Sorry for the confusion that this may have caused to anyone. 🙂

 

[Capt Caveman]

argh why do they require signature confirmation on the Sim card delivery... 2nd day I haven't been home to sign for it.

Wasn't home today for the first attempt. Called FedEx and they can't even redirect the shipment(to my office). So, if I'm not sitting at home waiting for the package, it goes back to ST. Idiots.

edit - just called ST to see if they could tell FedEx to just leave the package. The number is busy. The number on my email is a 800 number on their website it's 877.

 

[Infrnl]

You guys do know you can call to schedule to pick up the package or do same day will call. I also believe they hold the package for 7 days befor it gets shipped back to sender. I do agree that fedex's system is not as good as ups or they should just not require signature on this type of package.

 

[Capt Caveman]

You guys do know you can call to schedule to pick up the package or do same day will call. I also believe they hold the package for 7 days befor it gets shipped back to sender. I do agree that fedex's system is not as good as ups or they should just not require signature on this type of package.

Except the FedEx location is about an hour from where I live.

 

[Ksyder]

Yeah I have to drive probably 30 minutes out of the way in order to go pick up the sim card at Fedex. Fedex showed up at 8:47 am with the last delivery attempt. Sorry, I'm at work at that time.

Signature for a freaking prepaid sim card. Extremely unnecessary. I would have rather they just shipped via USPS 1st class mail.

 

[soulcougher73]

Yeah ill have to go pick up mine at FedEx. Today was the 2nd attempt. But i work so this is retarded of ST.

 

[Infrnl]

Well that sucks that some of you live so far out. Maybe you should had the package shipped to your work? I think that was an option
Have you guys called FedEx to see if there are any options that will work for you?
Best of luck, hope you can get something figured out

 

[Infrnl]

Regular and Microsim are not really big deal. You can cut the regular Sim card into microsim size. And if you have microsim, you can use adapter to use it in phones that need full size Sim. Just like microSD and SD memory cards. The Sim adapters are like $1 shipped on places like EBay and Amazon. I ordered the microsim to avoid the hassle of cutting the Sim since I have adapters.

I should have remembered what you wrote when I ordered. I bought 2 of ea but should have bought just micros. Oh we'll. the deal is still going, I could just get another micro or 2. This way I would not have any issues with future phone upgrades. Nevermind, I'll just trim my full size sims down and get a couple of adapters.

You're going to love the phone. Regarding Straight Talk, when you set up the APN Settings on your Galaxy Nexus, you can skip and not enter the Proxy and the Port. (proxy.mvno.tracfone.com and 80) I found I had more connection error issues when using the Proxy and Port with random "access forbidden" messages and data outages. You can try both like I did but I found the data and the service to work better with the proxy and port field left blank. Some people claim if you leave it blank they don't track your usage and you can use 5+ gb data without any throttle but I don't know how valid that is.

I thought I read if you do not setup the apn settings that mms, etc will not work properly. Is this not true?


On a side note for those having delivery/pickup issues. I got lucky today. I missed FedEx by 10 mins but the driver left a number to call and they gave me the drivers number. He was only a couple mins down the rd and I met him o get the package.
Also depending on delivery date, they deliver on sat or you can have the package left at certain locations for you to pick up when you have time. These options should hopefully help you guys get your packages

 

[Dankk]

I thought I read if you do not setup the apn settings that mms, etc will not work properly. Is this not true?

Read his post again. He didn't say to skip the APN settings altogether; rather, only enter in some of the settings, and leave out others.

In this case, leaving out Straight Talk's proxy information in the APN settings actually gives you faster and more reliable network speeds. This is what I did, and my phone's internet connection is quite nice now.

 

[Infrnl]

Read his post again. He didn't say to skip the APN settings altogether; rather, only enter in some of the settings, and leave out others.

In this case, leaving out Straight Talk's proxy information in the APN settings actually gives you faster and more reliable network speeds. This is what I did, and my phone's internet connection is quite nice now.

Thanks for the clarification. I will do this when I figure out my game plan and activate service. I have 1 month left on contract but I also want a new phone. My current phone will o to my son when I get things figured out. Thanks again

Edit: I'm hoping service will be good(fast) enough with st. I went to AT&T to looked at some phones. I installed speed test on a gs3 there and ran a few tests. Only got 4ish Mbps on their 3.5g.
I have a buddy that has gs3 on tmobile and he gets 6-18. I will be using AT&T as they have better coverage than tmobile. I'll just test the service for a month and go from there.

 

[ImDonly1]

Except the FedEx location is about an hour from where I live.

You can have them hold it at a nearby FedEx kinkos office. You don't have any FedEx kinkos around you?

 

[Headcase_Fargone]

For everyone that's been using Straight Talk for a while, what does your data usage look like? I've been on the T-Mobile $30 plan for a while now, but honestly the whole Sipdroid/GTalk thing is getting really annoying to deal with. I've been thinking about switching to Straight Talk for my Nexus, but I tend to use close to 3GB a month, mostly from streaming radio. I could probably cut that down to 2GB, but I've heard about daily caps as well.