Walmart cell phone plan
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purgoose10
Veteran Expediter
One of my drivers has one and the problem is they operate mostly off of AT&T towers. He said the service was great inside the city and just as soon as they got out in the country, NO SERVICE.
Suggest you get a cheap phone and small pay as you go plan and check it out before doing more.
Some phones operate off AT&T towers, some off Verizon, some off Sprint. It all depends on the location of the Walmart where you buy it, or, of your home Zip Code. Where I live, for example, Walmart phones are all AT&T. If I go half an hour south to Paris, TN, the phones at the Walmart there are all Verizon. My stepdad went down to Paris to get his phone because he wanted to use the Verizon network. (I'm still on Verizon, not Straight Talk).
If that's the case they aren't using the entire att network. I have no problem with att as a direct customer.
Sent from my Fisher Price - ABC 123
purgoose10
Veteran Expediter
Could be the area you run in also. If your in the midwest you probably have great service, if your in Ia, the southeast or elsewhere it could be crap. Not all Wal Mart phones are Verizon. In South Carolina they are T Mobile and or Verizon again depends on the area and the phone you buy.
First phone I had was on sprint and it was crap, took it back and got one that works on the Verizon network ,problem solved!
paullud
Veteran Expediter
They would be limited to using just the AT&T network which is the problem. They rely on other companies called roaming partners to provide their coverage.
I had a Net10 Walmart phone a few years back. It used AT&T towers. I don't remember having any more or any less signal coverage with it than the contract AT&T phone that I replaced it with. We are usually on or close to an interstate, which is where most of the towers are. If I saw a good deal that I liked, I wouldn't immediately cancel my contract phone. I would get the prepaid phone and try it out for a couple of months, then make my decision. I wouldn't be afraid of trying one out though. My experience was pretty decent.
Be careful about straight talk and their coverage. I used to think that straight talk phone on Verizon network was the best thing ever. Not so, because a straight talk phone will not roam on other towers. As a result you have no coverage at all in western half of Kentucky. If you go north on 65, as soon as you leave Tennessee your phone stops working, and you don't get signal back until close to Louisville. And there are other areas like that.
My contract verizon phone ain't all that great in WKY either. It does get signal usually, but not a great one. Might as well forget data service on 65 in KY with Verizon.
Or anywhere west of Elizabethtown on the Parkway until you get past Central City towards Mortons Gap. You get a cell signal, but no data. It sucks. In Murray, where there is a university, we still don't have 4G in town. But that's why the Walmarts in Murray, Benton, Mayfield are all AT&T phones, but if you go half hour south to Paris you get Verizon phones. However, my stepdad did have good cell coverage in town and all around western KY, including 3G data in Murray. But Verizon always has been spotty or non-existent in western KY, and central KY between TN and Louisville on I-65.
My issue with not moving to Straight Talk or some other prepaid plan is the data coverage and my internet usage, both on the phone and with the phone tethered to the laptop. If I could take my Droid Bionic to Straight Talk and still have 4G data I'd do it in a heartbeat.
My issue with not moving to Straight Talk or some other prepaid plan is the data coverage and my internet usage, both on the phone and with the phone tethered to the laptop. If I could take my Droid Bionic to Straight Talk and still have 4G data I'd do it in a heartbeat.
They've recently put towers up on 65. Big improvement... 4G
Thanks for the "like" Scott. I poured my heart and soul into the creative process of composing that post.