Cell Phone Service

In reply to asoduk:
Put the S3 on VZ Prepaid or put it on ST. The nice thing here is that you are not making a commitment for more than 30 days. Try 1 month with one then a month with the other. You are maintaining your freedom by staying prepaid.

Note: be sure to keep good records of what your account number and account password so that you can easily switch between companies and still keep your original phone number.

Next, I write a book and the history of ST, Family Mobile, Common Cents, Total, etc.

It was about 2011 when Walmart(WM) drew a very distinct line in the sand and told all the cell phone carriers that WM wanted "more."
This is a common strategy of WM. Take Laundry detergent as an example. If the standard "large" bottle of Tide is 100 ounces then you will find that at WM, the "large" Tide is 110 ounces. WM then sells that 110 ounces for the price of everyone else's 100 ounce. This is not because WM likes you but rather WM has told Tide to cover the difference if they want to sold in WM.

In the prepaid phone world, you can buy a TracPhone or Boost Mobile phone or all other prepaid phones at WM but the real money in the Prepaid phone game is in the monthly service. When the consumer pays for a months service at WM through buying a airtime card, the retailer makes about 10% of that monthly service. $45 for a months service would make WM $4.50.
What WM does not like about this is that maybe you buy the handset and first month at WM but there was no guarantee that you would ever spend another dollar at WM. You could pay for the next months service directly to the phone company or maybe buy the next months airtime card at the gas station, etc.

WM then pushed all the brands (TracPhone, Tmo, Sprint, VZ, ATT) that WM wanted its own, exclusive brands. This would assure WM that they got a cut of the monthly service.
At Sprint, we launched a brand known as Common Cents. This was a per minute service that was 7 cents (while at the time the industry was at 10 cents per minute.) WM expected Sprint to put 100% of the promotional dollars of promoting this exclusive brand to WM. That's right, we paid for WM to benefit from this. I can put names directly to a lot of bad decissions on Sprint's part and this quickly failed brand was another classic example of bad Sprint management. I am sure you've never heard of it.

Other brands that have come out of this dynamic are Walmart Family Mobile (which is Tmo) and now, just launched, Total (which is VZ)

TracPhone was already an MVNO that had agreements to buy from all the carriers. The real success story of this has been Sraight Talk. TracPhone always had a strong relationship with WM and TracPhone became the largest prepaid subscriber base through years of growth with WM

Go onto ting.com. Go to the compatibility database and see if your phone will work. Then get ting, either the gsm or cdma depending on what you actually have, after checking the coverage map. No contract. Get out your last cell bill and plug it in to see hoe much your phone would cost for that month on their service

Ting is an interesting plan, I agree. Especially for peculiar useage.

OP, talk to people in your area about their satisfaction with connectivity. The holes in coverage can be important and significant. For example, at a friends house, there is no Verizon signal. At the inlaws house, there is no AT&T signal.

From past experience, anything to do with Tracfone ends in tears, yours.

Beware throttling, in particular with the likes of Cricket. Yes, it runs on the fast AT&T network, at a severely throttled rate. Same applies to many of the cut-rate non-plans. Sometimes this is done via tower exclusion.

@JohnRW: you've done it again with great information! What do you know about roaming on VZW prepaid vs ST?

Coverage for Vz prepaid and VZ via ST will be the same.

Thanks to JohnRW, I am now on ST! WalMart sells a $60 4GLTE kit, which includes the activation code and a variety of SIM cards for whatever phone you have. I did the online activation and moved my number over from VZW. The process took me about 15 minutes and after activation my phone was good to go with my old number after 2 reboots and about 5 minutes.

So far, I'm happy with the move. Everything works just as it did before and I'm saving money.

FWIW, I looked at Total Wireless too, but couldn't verify that it would work with my phone.

Just as an update to everyone: Its been over a month now and I can report that the service has been good with straight talk. There seems to sometimes be a delay in MMS messages, but not enough that I can really even diagnose it. My S3 is rooted and I have removed the majority of VZW's crap.

Today Google announced their Fi program that I am really considering, although it would require me to get a Nexus 6.

Google Fi will be a big deal but I think it will be a big deal for reasons other than what you might think.

The Gov (Fair Trade Commission and FCC) have stated that they do not want Sprint and TMo to merge. This would reduce the cell carriers to 3. The reality is Sprint and TMo will struggle to compete and easily it could boil down to just 2 (VZ, ATT).

What will happen is that Google will start buying bulk service from S and TMo amd re-sell it to Google Fi customers. Keep in mind, Google can not buy out the S Corp and TMo Corp directly and buying either singularly is not the best approach either, but buying bulk service from both is both legal and prudent.

The is more than one way to "own" a company and one of those ways is to become their "exclusive customer."

Google is saying that you'll need a Nexus 6 with a special sim. I'm curious, do you think your a current N6 owner, will Google mail you a new sim when you sign up?

In reply to PHeller:

As a current N6 customer, you are most likely to get invited...

http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=15682

. It requires the Nexus 6 smartphone at launch, which Google says was developed with Project Fi in mind. Nexus 6 owners can request invites starting today.

I'm not, but I would be. Apparently I can get a Nexus 6 from best buy for $199, which considering how happy I've been with my pure Google Moto G, I'd be willing to do.

Although some are complaining about Google Fi's data cost ($10per/gb), that's currently cheaper than my plan with PagePlus/Kitty Wireless which only affords me 500/gb and an increasingly limited number of phones to use. My Moto G just slipped in while you could still get phones flashed/rooted to work on PagePlus. I can't do that anymore, my Moto G has a busted screen, and I can afford a $200 Nexus 6.

My only worry is this: http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/22/8469901/google-fi-coverage-map-comparison-sprint-tmobile

EDIT: Nexus 6 for $200 is with a 2-year contract. FML. A $600 used Nexus 6 is a bit harder to swallow.

Bringing this one back from the grave... Straight Talk (vzw) is still great to me, and the 5GB is more data that I won't use. I did something dumb this week though: I bought the $20 Moto G (2013) for Verizon Prepaid for $20. I really just got it to leave on the coffee table to use with my Chromecast. Anyhow, I am amazed at how nicely it runs compared to my S3.

So I'm thinking that now I want a Moto G, and I know there is a new one on its way. I want to stay with Verizon towers. So is there a way with the current offerings to get a Moto G working on ST using VZW service?

If the Moto G is 3g, then you might want to look at Puppy Wireless. They are a VZW MVNO. They are owned by Kitty Wireless, a PagePlus dealer. The have a large range of plans to meet anyone's price needs. They also offer monthly autopsy service so you don't have to remember to put a new pin on your phone. They are based out of Maine and the entire company is in the US, including the call center. They should be offering 4g service in the next week or 2.

This $20 Moto G:
Did you buy this device new or buy it used?
It is possible that you got it new since VZ will likely soon be discontinuing the 3G only, Moto G in favor of the 4G capable Moto E.
If new, VZ pays more that the $20 for the unit (closer to $100.) This disparity of price is known as The Handset Subsidy. VZ can't get your $50-ish per month unless you have a handset and as such they are willing to loose money on the handset if that is what it takes to get you to drop $50 per month. Along with this though, VZ has a rule that any handset sold directly by VZ must be a true VZ customer for 6 months (could be 1 year) before they will allow the handset to be used on other VZ based MVNO services. Stated another way, VZ says, "We'll give you $80 off the handset to get started but then expect you will give us $50 x 6 months = $300 before we will allow you to use the handset with any other company."

Of course, you may think, "but hey VZ, if I take your handset to ST, I still will use VZ towers so that must generate some money to VZ?"
The answer is yes, it does generate some money to VZ but that money is shared with ST meaning it generates less money for VZ than if you were a direct VZ customer.
So, VZ says, "buy a ST boxed handset, where ST provides the handset subsidy if you want to go directly to ST. "

If you bought the Moto G used AND the handset has met VZ requirements then you can infact take it to ST through ST's BYOD program
Similarly, if bought used AND meets VZ requirements you could take it to Kitty/Puppy.

The Moto G is a good handset and does have a very clean user interface, I agree. The handsets shortcomings are in the facts that it is 3G only and that it can not accept a SD card which means it's internal 8GB storage is all it can handle. If you use a lot of apps or hold a lot of data, you will find that you fill the storage quickly. Sure, you can have cloud based solutions for additional storage but this leaves a chink in the armor when you realize that if you are away from Wifi and using cellular data, you will only have 3G to pull down that cloud data.

The way you are using the handset as a micro tablet does make for a great value.

JohnR: The $20 Moto G was a deal best buy had (has?) going for VZ prepaid. Its not the same great Moto G the rest of the world gets; There is no SIM slot, no SD slot, and its got the usual VZ bloatware. I am perfectly happy having this phone just on wifi. What I want is a Moto G with the SIM and SD slots with 4G LTE that I can use with Straight Talk BYOP using VZ towers.

I'm not so sure that device exists :(

Kitty/Puppy looks interesting. For me though, it doesn't seem quite as good as ST.

asoduk wrote: What I want is a Moto G with the SIM and SD slots with 4G LTE that I can use with Straight Talk BYOP using VZ towers. I'm not so sure that device exists :(

The easiest answer is what you want is the Moto X. This is Moto's top handset. To buy one outright so you can use it on ST will cost you $600 and you can get it right from Moto's website.

On the used market you should be able to get much cheaper, but...
When buying used, you have to be sure that the handset has a "clean esn." To be clean means that this specific handset and its associated electronic serial number have been freed by VZ. That is , that the handset has met it contractual requirements or has not been reported stolen along with any other account difficulties like it may be associated with an account that went into collections.

Sample:
http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/mob/5024640939.html
I would write this seller and ask the seller for the ESN.
Then, plug that ESN into the ST BYOD website and you should quickly have your answer as to weather this handset can be used on ST.

Edit: I thought the MotoX accepted SD cards but apparently it does not. Like iPhone, there are 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions.

FreedomPop is another carrier (Free 200 min / 500txt / 500mb data). It's what my oldest (still to young for a cell) uses.

Straght Talk isn't always Verizon, or ATT, or Sprint. It is very odd. Almost like what ever batch of numbers they purchased.

Also, if you are on Verizon, and they port you over to Verizon. They say they can't port your number system to system as it causing a billing issue

I went to the government T-Mobile plan. close to what straight talk but at 12 months I get the discounts on new phones without contracts and 4g.

IF T-mobile covers your area, it is a great deal. Or you can go MetroPCS as that is now a wholly owned subsidiary of T-Mobile and uses T-Mobile stuff.

Verizon, I have no idea.

Edit: Oh yeah, there is Republic Wireless does wifi calling. If you are in a Sprint area and on WiFi alot. great plans

Thanks all! Especially JohnRW for the local CL ad! I emailed them to see if its still available. The SD isn't really that important to me, but I'd want it if the device only had 8GB to start with.

I want to stick with VZ towers b/c other services suck at Mid Ohio. I never even use my phone there, but its nice knowing I can.

I'm very happy to report that ST's BYOP for CDMA (Verizon) has been great with my 4G Verizon Branded Samsung S3. I'm just getting annoyed with the phone, especially after the purchase of this $20 phone.