Is Straight Talk catching on?
It seemed the industry was a bit scared when Straight Talk, the unlimited voice and text offering from Tracfone, debuted a few weeks ago. Shares of telecoms which offered similar unlimited plans temporarily plummeted, though they did recover. The fear is of a price war that might not happen. While the industry has shaken off the passing panic, Straight Talk still stands to do well. In fact, there are already positive reports coming out of at least one market.
FierceWireless references a report by Pali Research saying that Straight Talk is doing quite well in Atlanta. This is no surprise. Yet, has Tracfone implemented a marketing plan in the ATL that they haven’t in the rest of the nation? From the FierceWirless summary:
He also noted in a blog post that Wal-Mart employees seemed knowledgeable about the plan, and that they were pointing out to customers that the plan runs on Verizon’s network. Several Wal-Mart employees said the majority of their prepaid wireless sales had already shifted to Straight Talk. Piecyk said that TracFone commercials promoting the plan appeared to be playing in heavy rotation on local television stations.
It’s really no surprise that sales people know about the plan. It was probably promoted as a big winner by Wal-Mart store managers. Plus, there’s really not much to remember. Unlimited voice and text, plus 30 MB of data, for $45 per month, and it runs on the Verizon network. That’s it. I wonder if there’s as much promotion for Straight Talk’s $30 plan, which provides 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts, and 30 MB of data. That’s the one I like.
Of course, Straight Talk catching on it’s objectively great. Remember, it’s on a six-month trial with Verizon, so if they see too much volume, the offering could get nixed. We’ll have a better idea early next year.
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I’m not at all surprised that Straight Talk is catching on. You know why? Because until last month I paid over $50 for the most basic plan on Verizon. The plan is supposed to cost $40 but with all the hidden charges and fees added, I never paid less than 50. It only gave me 450 minutes, data was charged at a ludicrous $1.99 per Mb, 411 calls cost almost 2 bucks each.
That was last month.
This month I get 1000 minutes, 1000 texts, 30mb of data and free 411 calls.
On the same network.
That is why the plan is catching on…
Posted on July 22nd, 2009 at 1:19 pm
I think this Straight Talk is a great offer but I’m still very cash-strapped at the moment so I’ll be staying with my Net10 phone for now because I only pay $20 per month and I get everything (Long distance, Roaming and international calls) for only 10cents per minute, and texts for 5 cents. I don’t use more than 200 minutes at the moment anyway.
Posted on July 23rd, 2009 at 6:39 am
As a college student, I don’t have enough money to pay the pricy cell phone bill that I have been paying for the past few months. My friend told me at the beginning of the month of a company called TracFone. They are a prepaid cell phone company — which means, I only pay for the minutes that I need. The best part is that you don’t need to spend a lot of money on contract phones. Tracfone recently came up with a plan called “Straight Talk”. I had NO IDEA what it was until I did some research. Here’s what it is: you pay 30 dollars a month and it includes 1000 anytime minutes (nation wide), 1000 text messages, 30 MB of data and no overage charges! You can get them at Wal-Mart stores for very cheap. It’s great for college students, elderly, children, and people who do not use their phones too frequently.
Posted on July 24th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Straight Talk pretty much is the second wave of the unlimited plan price wars launched by Boost unlimite back in January. Not quite as revolutionary so much as evolutionary. Boost basically pushed Metro and Cricket into circling their wagons and sibling rival and fellow Sprint Mvno Virgin Mobile to attempt to match their unlimited moves.
The Gsm networks have been all quiet with NOT ONE UNLIMITED GSM EVERYTHING plan out there. Combining the muscles of Verizon, Tracfone and Walmart, Straight Talk is a test trial for six months for Trac to test out the waters in an unfamiliar (to them) market.
The biggest thing they did was causing Metro, Cricket and other carriers stocks to drop briefly from the annoucement of their $45 unlimited talk/text/30 meg plan. And rival carrier Sprint pushing unlimited plans for its Mvnos , hurling them at Verizon, Ready Mobile’s 2/7 day unlimited plan, Kajeet’s unltd talk/text trial, Boost cdma Unltd price cuts. ST is not being ignored.
And apparently, fellow long time established Verizon mvno Page Plus is going to launch plans in August to September to counter what they see as a direct threat by Straight Talk. Rumors are floating that at least 4, maybe 5 new plans are on the way including two which closely mirror Straight Talk in price and content.
Whether they all come out or only part of the plans come out, it will be an exciting time for fans of Page Plus if they do as they are supposedly going to. All this is thanks to Straight Talk.
Posted on July 25th, 2009 at 5:57 am
I am a college student having a hard time making ends meet as well. I am definetely going to get a straight talk plan. I have a friend that uses the service and says nothing but good things about it
Posted on July 28th, 2009 at 6:52 am
Update on Straight Talk, it will NOT end in six months. The much talked about trial period for Verizon refers to the Branding, “Powered by the Nationwide Verizon Network” logo on the ST packaging. It is a multiple year deal according to Verizon. They were just looking at the trial to not allow their name to be directly used after the six months. IT was in today’s online Wall Street Journal.
Here is the excerpt: (Verizon Executive Denny) Strigl said the partnership, called Straight Talk, is experimental, and that the company wouldn’t do anything to cannibalize its own core contract business. Verizon Wireless has the right to pull its brand off the service at any time. Strigl confirmed that the deal with TracFone will run for multiple years, but the branding experiment would last six months.
Straight Talk made headlines because it offered a more than 50% discount on Verizon Wireless’ service, despite running on the same network. Strigl said the pricing is up to TracFone.
Posted on July 30th, 2009 at 1:20 am
Good catch, Peter. Good to know that this will stick around for a while. That might even get more people to sign up, knowing that they’ll continue to have service.
Posted on July 30th, 2009 at 9:17 am
I HAVE A QUESTION FOR ALL OF YOU STRAIGHT TALK OWNERS; IS ST AND VERIZON WIRELESS MOBILE TO MOBILE TO EACHOTHER? BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE IF NOT IT KIND OF DEFEATS THE PURPOSE; BECAUSE MOST OF MY FRIENDS HAVE VERIZON AND THEY CANT TALK FOR FREE UNLESS ITS VERIZON OR AFTER 9 O’CLOCK OR SOMETHING SO CAN SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE ME SOME ADVICE!!!
Posted on August 10th, 2009 at 7:26 am
Cierra, as far as I can tell there is no mobile to mobile between Verizon and Straight Talk.
Posted on August 10th, 2009 at 10:52 am
I went to the crooks at the Verizon Wireless store. I showed them my new ST phone. I asked them if they could match a service planw with out a contract. They told me no. They also told me that Verizon would never let any other complaies under cut their contracts.
I was told that this company isn’t real, that my service wouldn’t be as good, and I would not get good customer service.
So far all of the things they told me are false. Verizon will try to do anything to keep you locked in a contract. The renewed my contract when my 6 month old phone died.
When your phone contract is up kiss Verizon goodbye. Go with Straight talk. No contract, $30 a month.
1000 minutes 1000 texts. 30 gb net use
I bought my at walmart.com.
Posted on August 23rd, 2009 at 11:15 pm
NO! STRAIGHT TALK IS NO BETTER!!!!!!
1. if you get a $30 card the first time you put a balance on your phone, you MUST stay paying the $30 unless you want your phone to be de and reactivated 3 TIMES!!. i tried and 3 days after the fact ive had nothing but problems.. tyesterday, it said that after a 3min phone call, i was out of money even though at the begingin of that call i had over 16 hours. NOW today i couldnt listen to ringtones, view pictures or videos nor take any. so my mom and i called the company and when we did so, the “oh so great” gentleman that we got wiped out EVERYTHING and i mean EVERRYYYTHINGGG on my phone. i now have no pictures, no videos, no messages that i had locked, and all the ringtones i downloaded, yea they’re gone too. and when we talked to the supervisor, his exact words were “Thats impossible” so i get angry (even more than i was already)and they never even tried to repair it.. nor did we get an apology for the inconvenience. we then call back to give him the code that we were given that had “accidentally” cleared my phone and the actually very nice lady we got said that it CAN happen and that SHE was SORRY!. the person who has no say in anything says shes sorry but the person in charge NOTHING..
Posted on September 27th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
does verizon do anything good anymore? their service has gotten worse over the years and there prices are very high. they always seem to bill you for hidden fees or try to overbill you. THEY SUCK !! in my opinion.
Posted on September 29th, 2009 at 11:58 am
ST RAZRv3 update.Activated my phone with Straight Talk on 9/25 and it took six days to port the old number and get it working. It took until 10/9 to get the browser to work. It took repeated calls to India, but it is finally working the way it is supposed to. The call quality is good.
Posted on October 10th, 2009 at 1:32 am
Straight Talk is owned by Tracfone so will always have their substandard (imho) non US customer service. Not that inferior foreign CS is any better then inferior American CS. At that price it is about the phones (yeah they are getting five new models over the coming months) and the network (post Alltel merger Verizon prepaid network ). At $45 unlimited everything they are offering Metro/Cricket prices for a Verizon product.
Posted on October 20th, 2009 at 5:06 am
I just purchased Straight Talk and I love it. I was with Verizon doing the pay as you go at 3.99/day for unlimited talk/1 penny per text, so I was spending 120/mo. but I rack up about 5,000 min/mo. I hope it stays around since I’m reading that it’s in a 6 mo. trial period.
Posted on October 28th, 2009 at 8:25 am
We just got the new samsung phone with keyboard and the service and phone is great. No prob’s here.
Posted on October 30th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
I understand the new st phones don’t work in all areas. Is ther a list or coverage map available?
Posted on November 4th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
yes there is a coverage list and available list of phones, i’m with Tracfone with DMFL card and i buy the 450 minute card which then doubles to 900 and i go through it all within a month, so this Straight Talk plan seems like the better deal since they separate talk and text, tracfone doesn’t so anything you do takes airtime, unlimited would be great too as more and more people ditch their landlines
Posted on November 8th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
I just got this service about a week and a half ago and have issues with people not receiving my texts or me not getting theirs, sending and receiving duplicate texts or even receive texts then like 12 hrs. later receive the same texts again. For the people that do not have the unlimited plan I would be throwing a fit for having my texts wasted.
Posted on November 11th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
I got my phone from wal-mart on 10-9-09
today is th 16th and I still dont have a phone. First they wouldnt beleive that my phone number was my account number. SO they called page plus(bye the way sucks, 56cents a min for roaming and they dont tell you tell after activation, only had them a few weeks) page plus verified my account next day they tell me the dont know how to spell page plus …really. Page plus witch also runs on verizon tells me they ported the number susesfully on tueday… ST tells me its a billing issue is the reason its taken so long (Its prepaid who gets billed) so today they tell me I have to wait an aditional 48 hrs and call them back. I was with suncom then altell seems I cant get away from the hold verizon is putting on us evey time I have had my number ported it to 10 mins – 12 hrs at the most so I told them I need a phone on today I got kids and me company runs off of that number they wont release my phone number now…. I want to burn down there building
Posted on November 16th, 2009 at 4:41 pm