Service Plan for New Smartphone

[WhenKittensATK]

I currently use a Motorola Razr (1st gen haha) on a AT&T family plan with unlimited talk & text. I recently bought a Nexus 4, because it was on sale. Adding a data plan to AT&T is $30/month for 3GB. They charge you an additional $10 for every 1GB over. A friend of mine recommended Straight Talk which has unlimited talk, text, and data for $45/month.

 

Seeing talk of people saying they throttle you once you get to 1.5 GB or something. My friend uses Straight Talk for 6 months now and says he hasn't run into any issues. I don't think I'll be using much data. I'll probably only have Gmail, IM+, Facebook, and Twitter running in the background like when I had my tablet. I could easily just shut off the data when I don't need to use any of those apps. The only other use is random web browsing, excluding streaming media as much as I can (only in stores). Everywhere else usually has Wi-Fi to do all the heavy lifting of downloading/updating apps and streaming.

 

Straight Talk

Pros: Still can use AT&T towers and get unlimited data (1.5 GB soft cap throttling?)

Cons: May get throttled and runs $5 more a month than if I just added a data plan on ATT

 

AT&T

Pros: Already setup and 3 GB soft cap

Cons: $10 per 1 GB overage

 

Do you guys use Straight Talk? What is your experience with it? Is AT&T 3 GB soft cap enough for what I listed above?

Edited September 11, 2013 by AZNguyen

[IVIYTH0S]

Get Verizon with a family member or two

[bp9801]

Get Verizon with a family member or two

 

He already has AT&T. And the Nexus 4 runs on GSM, so that won't work on Verizon's CDMA.

 

 

Personally, I rarely go over 1GB of data use in a month. I also don't use my phone a ton and I just have Gmail pulling from the network. Facebook is a massive, massive data drain, so that could easily push you over 3GB alone.

[IVIYTH0S]

 

Get Verizon with a family member or two

 

He already has AT&T. And the Nexus 4 runs on GSM, so that won't work on Verizon's CDMA.

 

 

Personally, I rarely go over 1GB of data use in a month. I also don't use my phone a ton and I just have Gmail pulling from the network. Facebook is a massive, massive data drain, so that could easily push you over 3GB alone.

 

It helps that newer phones have far better wifi management. I share a plan with my dad and sister on Verizon and we only pulled like 600MB this month but I used to hit 2-3GB a month on Sprint always. (if I left my old phone's wifi on, it would rape my battery...surprisingly the new phones don't have this problem)

 

You have a point though, then again I'd sell the Nexus 4 just because I don't like it and ditch AT&T if it was up to me.

 

IMHO it's T-Mobile on a budget and Verizon is if you can share it with a couple friends or family members (then you get the best but don't have to pay their admittedly steep solo user plans)

 

I keep hearing of StraightTalk a whole bunch on here but no one I know has it so I can't recommend that one way or the other.

[Onion]

I used to have AT&T. I'm on T-Mobile (classic plan, it's the best) and I considered going to Verizon after my current contract ended but T-Mobile is so much cheaper. T-Mobile all the way, we have great reception in North Florida.

 

My bill is $35 a month (has to be the classic plan for this) for unlimited text, calling, and 5 gb of data. Overages don't cost anything, they just cap you to 3g speeds.

Edited September 13, 2013 by Onion

[WhenKittensATK]

T-Mobile $30/month = 100 minutes talk | Unlimited text | First 5 GB at up to 4G speeds

 

100 minutes a month seems kinda low. Don't talk a lot on the phone, but sometimes conversations can run long.

[bishop245]

While my brother was not in jail I bought him a straight talk phone with the $45 unlimited plan. He was a heavy user of youtube and facebook, but he never said anything about losing his internet speed at all for over 2 years. I am temped to jump to straight talk from my at&t plan. I pay $96 or so a month with a 2Gb data plan, so when straight talk says they can cut your bill in half they aint lieing.

[Locutus]

I have Metro PCS which I pay 25 a month for without a data plan, but they also have a 45 dollar plan with data but it has a pretty low cap from what I recall. And after the cap they throttle you down to like 1/5 the speed of 3G 

[IVIYTH0S]

 

T-Mobile $30/month = 100 minutes talk | Unlimited text | First 5 GB at up to 4G speeds

 

100 minutes a month seems kinda low. Don't talk a lot on the phone, but sometimes conversations can run long.

 

Yeah but my friend has T-Mobile and the calls can go through over wifi. So if you're home or within distance of a usable router (open or one you're allowed to use) then you won't be using your minutes but rather conducting the call with a VOIP setup instead. (I believe the transition is seemless from what he tells me)

[Onion]

 

T-Mobile $30/month = 100 minutes talk | Unlimited text | First 5 GB at up to 4G speeds

 

100 minutes a month seems kinda low. Don't talk a lot on the phone, but sometimes conversations can run long.

 

 

You must be looking at the wrong thing because I have unlimited minutes as well.