Mobile phone class action suite.

[shovelhead]

Just got a notification about a class action suite against Straight Talk, NET10, Telcel, and Simple Mobile.
I've had ST for 2 years.  They did say the prepaid plan was unlimited everything.  I have 1st hand experience
with them throttling my internet access  when I hit 5GB.  It was dog slow. Barely useable. 
Will see what comes of this... after lawyers fee :-)

[sidecarmike]

[quote source="/post/8447/thread" timestamp="1427319770" author="@shovelhead"]Just got a notification about a class action suite against Straight Talk, NET10, Telcel, and Simple Mobile.
I've had ST for 2 years.  They did say the prepaid plan was unlimited everything.  I have 1st hand experience
with them throttling my internet access  when I hit 5GB.  It was dog slow. Barely useable. 
Will see what comes of this... after lawyers fee :-)

[/quote][p]Read the fine print in that letter.  Your share is something like $2.58.  I also have Straight talk and got the letter. [/p][p] We've had it since my AT&T contract ended about 5 years ago.   Both AT&T and Straight Talk tell you they are going to do that, just in tiny print in the middle of the agreement that none of us really ever read. I'm one of those weird IT guys who read 600 page technical manuals for relaxation.  I tend to read all the fine print.[/p][p]
[/p][p]
[/p][p] These days they post it in a little bigger letters.  [/p][p][em]30 day Unlimited Plans include 3 GB of high speed data per 30 day cycle. After 3 GB, your data speed will be reduced for the remainder of the 30 day cycle.[/em][/p]

[whoofit]

Some of them state the speed they will reduce you to. Some don't. The one my kid found reduces it from 4G to 3G which isn't all that terrible.

[shovelhead]

I knew they throttled your speed, but I'm not sure to what.   I was going to look for a personal Wi-Fi for my travels but none look to be worth it.

[whoofit]

And then there is the biggie, coverage in your intended area.

The Mexican conglomerate than owns all (or most) of those you listed above just started another one. It's a Walmart exclusive that the name escapes me at the moment. It looked promising but you do need a phone that was never activated as a Ver or ATT or Sprint...etc.

You can wireless tether/hot spot for your own WiFi adhoc network. Most don't allow tethering to a PC because of bandwidth issues (they can tell, trust me) but Droids and the like are fine.

[shovelhead]

[quote source="/post/8790/thread" timestamp="1427982856" author="@whoofit"]And then there is the biggie, coverage in your intended area.

The Mexican conglomerate than owns all (or most) of those you listed above just started another one. It's a Walmart exclusive that the name escapes me at the moment. It looked promising but you do need a phone that was never activated as a Ver or ATT or Sprint...etc.

You can wireless tether/hot spot for your own WiFi adhoc network. Most don't allow tethering to a PC because of bandwidth issues (they can tell, trust me) but Droids and the like are fine.[/quote]I was in Yellowstone last summer using my ST iPhone 5 tethering my iPad to watch videos... thats how they nailed me.  Middle of the month and for the next couple weeks the bandwidth was nearly useless.

[whoofit]

There is one more option but not sure of the video quality, as I haven't tried it yet. My Moto Droid Maxx HD has a micro HDMI monitor output on it. Passing that to the TV seems to be an option. That would be invisible to them. Not sure if I could stomach the vid quality or not. Been meaning to test this out for the last two years.

[sidecarmike]

If you buy a dedicated Straight talk phone in this part of the country, you can determine which towers it uses.  Any phone with a Model Number ending in a C is a CDMA (Verizon) phone.  Those ending in a G ping the AT&T towers.  Verizon is really poor around here, but in the southern part of the state it works better than AT&T.  I carry an AT&T phone while the wife has a Verizon.  If one doesn't work, the other does.

[shovelhead]

[quote timestamp="1427984999" source="/post/8794/thread" author="@whoofit"]There is one more option but not sure of the video quality, as I haven't tried it yet. My Moto Droid Maxx HD has a micro HDMI monitor output on it. Passing that to the TV seems to be an option. That would be invisible to them. Not sure if I could stomach the vid quality or not. Been meaning to test this out for the last two years.[/quote]WOOFIT I got tired of video issues while tethering and sprung for the Dish Tailgater... adds ~$8.00 a month to my Dish bill. CW has them on sale.

[daplumbr]

This site has some great resources for information about getting and staying on-line for voice and data while traveling.

http://www.technomadia.com

[livinthegoodlife]

Technomadia's are a wealth of information; not only for their voice and data info, but anything else that one may have a question on. I highly recommend looking at their site.