I have a LG G2 and I am no longer under contract to Verizon, so I just pay VZW month to month for my service.
My questions here are:
Can I switched to Walmarts Straight Talk with my G2?
Would I still have the same coverage (4G) area on Straight Talk?
Thank you
No one has any info on this?
hd-renegade said:
No one has any info on this?
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AFAIK you have to buy one of their phones to use CDMA networks. Only the gsm carriers have the bring your own phone on ST.
Geekybiker said:
AFAIK you have to buy one of their phones to use CDMA networks. Only the gsm carriers have the bring your own phone on ST.
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Isn't the G2 CDMA and GSM capible??
Yes it is.
Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk 4
There are people who wrote a method to flash a sprint epic to straight talk Verizon towers that works on sprint Note 2s. One of the intermediate steps flashes a vzw phone. CDMA workshop and a little bit of work can make it happen.
hd-renegade said:
I have a LG G2 and I am no longer under contract to Verizon, so I just pay VZW month to month for my service.
My questions here are:
Can I switched to Walmarts Straight Talk with my G2?
Would I still have the same coverage (4G) area on Straight Talk?
Thank you
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Click to collapse
I looked into this a while back, since it sounded so wonderful in the commercials. I don't think Straight Talk offers any 4G service, but I could be wrong. It may be available on their GSM towers. Either way, if you follow the link below for "bring your own phone," then click on CMDA, the next page states BYOP does not work on 4G phones.
http://straighttalkbyop.com/
I seem to remember them selling a 3G Samsung S3 when I was looking into their service. That kind of put me off of them.
zandroid said:
I looked into this a while back, since it sounded so wonderful in the commercials. I don't think Straight Talk offers any 4G service, but I could be wrong. It may be available on their GSM towers. Either way, if you follow the link below for "bring your own phone," then click on CMDA, the next page states BYOP does not work on 4G phones.
http://straighttalkbyop.com/
I seem to remember them selling a 3G Samsung S3 when I was looking into their service. That kind of put me off of them.
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Thank you, I sort of figured maybe it was to good to be true.
Straight talk=3g only and vzw network only. No roaming networks.
trollarc said:
Straight talk=3g only and vzw network only. No roaming networks.
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Another thank you on good info for this.
trollarc said:
Straight talk=3g only and vzw network only. No roaming networks.
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You can get a LTE sim with ATT now on ST. Don't know if you can make it work in a VZW g2, but it should work fine in the ATT g2.
Okay, correction to my post. If you want vzw towers on st you have to have only vzw towers if you have a CDMA only phone. You can fflash to their sprint based service and only have sprint service (probably, not sure if they have donors to hack). Their sim networks are Att/T-Mobile. I haven't heard of anybody flashing to the st vzw towers with a vzw sim equipped phone and using one of their sims. That might be useful if you were in a place that regularly has simbased services and occasionally went to the boonies- you could just switch which service was active assuming you get better speed or home coverage on the sim service. Also useful for international (read: not north American) roaming.
Sent from my LG-LS970 using Tapatalk
I realize that this is an old thread but I just switched to Straight Talk from Verizon and thought I would share this. After the switch (I kept my number from Verizon) my phone still shows Verizon Wireless on the lock screen, still says VZWInternet for my APN settings and still shows that I am getting 4GLTE. I am actually on Straight Talk service though as I have my SIM from ST in my phone. I didnt have to use an ATT sim or anything. I registered CDMA on the Straight Talk site before I switched my phone number over. Hope this is useful to anyone thinking about switching over.
Verizon is a straighttalk's carrier so basically your phone is still working under Verizon wireless.
Sent from my HTC One XL using XDA Free mobile app
Just to shed a little light on this, while Straight Talk might operate on VZW towers in some regions, VZW does not authorize straight talk to use phones like the LG G2. One of the powers of CDMA is they can pre-approve select serial numbers for certain carriers, thus VZW knows every single phone ever manufactured for their network and can selectively choose which can be authorized to connect. Thats why you have to go through all the crazy phone cloning to get CDMA phones to look like authorized devices.
Anyway, ST operates on both CDMA and GSM in certain markets. When operating on GSM they utilize AT&T. The LG G2 can only connect to ST if you are using the native unlocked GSM mode. Thats right, all Verizon LG G2 phones are GSM unlocked. So if Straight Talk offers a GSM service through ATT in your area then you can use Straight Talk. If you are trying to connect to Straight Talk's CDMA service (verizon towers) it will not work. Of course you can also use your G2 on any GSM carrier, so T-mobile is also a good player here as they offer some pretty attractive plans, namely their $30/month 5GB/100minute plan. If you have a google voice number you can use Hangouts to place calls that count against data and not minutes, thus you have an Unlimited voice plan with 5GB data for $30/month.
RunNgun42 said:
Just to shed a little light on this, while Straight Talk might operate on VZW towers in some regions, VZW does not authorize straight talk to use phones like the LG G2. One of the powers of CDMA is they can pre-approve select serial numbers for certain carriers, thus VZW knows every single phone ever manufactured for their network and can selectively choose which can be authorized to connect. Thats why you have to go through all the crazy phone cloning to get CDMA phones to look like authorized devices.
Anyway, ST operates on both CDMA and GSM in certain markets. When operating on GSM they utilize AT&T. The LG G2 can only connect to ST if you are using the native unlocked GSM mode. Thats right, all Verizon LG G2 phones are GSM unlocked. So if Straight Talk offers a GSM service through ATT in your area then you can use Straight Talk. If you are trying to connect to Straight Talk's CDMA service (verizon towers) it will not work. Of course you can also use your G2 on any GSM carrier, so T-mobile is also a good player here as they offer some pretty attractive plans, namely their $30/month 5GB/100minute plan. If you have a google voice number you can use Hangouts to place calls that count against data and not minutes, thus you have an Unlimited voice plan with 5GB data for $30/month.
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Er, no. "Phone cloning" was necessary for using devices on older 3G-only MVNOs, but it's no longer the case now that Verizon uses SIM cards. (as do many Verizon MVNOs, like Straight Talk, Pageplus, etc)
As long as the G2 is in good standing (IMEI/ESN not blacklisted due to non-payment/stolen phone/etc), you can use it on ST. All you need to do is request a Verizon SIM from ST CS, pop it in the phone, and go. The $45 for Unlimited/Unlimited/5GB BYOP plan works fine on Verizon. Hell, as long as you have an activated SIM card, you can even use non-Verizon-approved LTE devices on a Verizon plan as long as it has the necessary LTE bands.
Why are you reviving an old, dead topic with outdated information?
xtermmin said:
Er, no. "Phone cloning" was necessary for using devices on older 3G-only MVNOs, but it's no longer the case now that Verizon uses SIM cards. (as do many Verizon MVNOs, like Straight Talk, Pageplus, etc)
As long as the G2 is in good standing (IMEI/ESN not blacklisted due to non-payment/stolen phone/etc), you can use it on ST. All you need to do is request a Verizon SIM from ST CS, pop it in the phone, and go. The $45 for Unlimited/Unlimited/5GB BYOP plan works fine on Verizon. Hell, as long as you have an activated SIM card, you can even use non-Verizon-approved LTE devices on a Verizon plan as long as it has the necessary LTE bands.
Why are you reviving an old, dead topic with outdated information?
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Thanks for the info, I was misinformed. Since I just canceled with Verizon and ate the ETF penalty, I still have my Verizon 4G sim. Can I use that with ST? Or do I still need to order an official ST branded sim to use with Verizon?
RunNgun42 said:
Thanks for the info, I was misinformed. Since I just canceled with Verizon and ate the ETF penalty, I still have my Verizon 4G sim. Can I use that with ST? Or do I still need to order an official ST branded sim to use with Verizon?
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ST will give you a SIM when you sign up, but be sure that it's for the Verizon network.
If you're ordering over the phone, just tell the rep that you want it for Verizon.
If you're doing it in store, make sure you're getting the ST Activation Kit for Verizon. Apparently not all Walmarts carry the ST Verizon kit, so you might have to order over the phone/on ST's website.
Once you get it, just pop it in your Verizon G2 and you're good to go.
xtermmin said:
ST will give you a SIM when you sign up, but be sure that it's for the Verizon network.
If you're ordering over the phone, just tell the rep that you want it for Verizon.
If you're doing it in store, make sure you're getting the ST Activation Kit for Verizon. Apparently not all Walmarts carry the ST Verizon kit, so you might have to order over the phone/on ST's website.
Once you get it, just pop it in your Verizon G2 and you're good to go.
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What seems so unreal about this is that I'm paying for Verizon service for less than Verizon charges. How the hell does that work for them? Does Verizon just make most of their money roping people into contracts for new phone subsidies? Do they severely deprioritize non VZW customers to the point that ST might be miserable on their network?
RunNgun42 said:
What seems so unreal about this is that I'm paying for Verizon service for less than Verizon charges. How the hell does that work for them? Does Verizon just make most of their money roping people into contracts for new phone subsidies? Do they severely deprioritize non VZW customers to the point that ST might be miserable on their network?
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There are a few of catches to ST's service, which apply to other Verizon MVNOs as well:
1) Verizon postpaid has roaming on 3rd party networks, while prepaid and MVNOs are limited to Verizon's native network only.
2) Verizon MVNOs have lower priority than Verizon-proper. On congested towers, ST and other MVNOs will have the slowest speeds.
3) Similar to the above, all Verizon MVNOs are capped at 5mbps LTE speeds. So not only do ST/MVNOs have the lowest priority, but even on uncongested towers their speeds are limited.
On the plus side, you get Verizon coverage, the largest data bucket at the $45 price point (5GB), and no additional charges/suspended data after you use your allotment (ST throttles to 64kbps after).
If priority and speeds are important, Verizon Prepaid has unlimited talk+text+2GB data (suspended after unless you pay for more) for $45. Higher priority than MVNOs and no speed restrictions.
So last week I bought a Moto xt1060W on ebay for Verizon. When I got it on Friday I popped in the sim and set up the phone. Not really paying attention I rushed out the door as it was downloading updates on my way to Comicon. When I got there I noticed I had no 4G service or data so I could only send and receive phone calls. I didn't get home til late so I decided to try and resolve it in the morning.
The next day while investigating the cause of no data I discovered that it was indeed NOT a Moto X xt1060 VZW device. It was a Moto X xt1050W made for regional carriers in the Illinois areas (probably thumb). The device has no VZW or other carrier software or branding. It does use same bands as VZW. I contacted the seller who swore up and down he had the device on Verizon for several months with no issues, but had bought the device from a local phone store. I contacted the VZW support and they basically told me that since it wasn't a Verizon phone there was nothing I could do.
.
I was pretty bummed and had started the return procedures through ebay but decided to hold off and look into it for one more day.
After some investigating with the seller we determined the only thing of difference was that the device I bought had different APN settings. So I found some VZW APN settings online and configured the phone. Now it works on VZW with no issues. I looked online and I have found no other case of a non VZW device being allowed to function on their network.
Did I miss something in my searching? If so is it not true that other unlocked phones from the same carriers would work with an APN tweak?
Is it possible that whatever regional carrier the phone was made for was part of the Verizon network? For example, I used to use Qwest wireless a long time ago with our family plan. It operated on the Sprint network, but was branded as Qwest. Eventually they stopped using the Qwest name and just offered bundled service with Verizon branded phones and service (we had to buy all new phones to get on the Verizon network).
So if the phone was part of a carrier that piggybacked on VZW, the necessary info (IMEI?) would be in their databases to allow it, so long as your settings are configured correctly, as you described.
I know there was a lot of confusion about this with the Nexus 6 coming out where previously carriers like Sprint and VZW would not allow a device that wasn't purchased through them to be on the network. VZW people seemed to get in without issue, but Sprint users had a ton of issues for devices bought from Moto or Google Play vs. direct from Sprint. It was cleared up eventually, but it was a nightmare.
I believe that is the case. Now I want to try and replicate this with a virgin mobile device. I find in my area a lot of these smaller carriers phones get resold dirt cheap so I can pick up something nice phones of I can replicate this.
I bought my N5 thu amazon and a soon to be returned Moto X thru Motorola. I am sending the Moto X back and want to try the N6. Any reason not to get it thru T-mobile?
Wifi calling, tethering, anything I will be left out of?
The main plus for me is from my recent issue with the Moto X. I had no roaming on the Moto X in Canada. T-Mobile tried to help me out but took them 3 days to verify nothing was wrong. Found out I needed to create a new APN. After doing so and confirming it was correct with Moto cust. support it still did not work. Had I not been within my 14 days I wouldn't be able to return, if same happens thru T-Mobile they would replace.
Wifi calling is said to be here hopefully before Q1 ends. Thats a month or so left. I got my 32 variant in store so im not sure how tmobile is dealing with the N6 shimpments. In short, i dont see why you would have a problem getting it thru Tmo.
i bought mine over the phone, and got it shipped next day, back in november. im paying $27 a month for it, and am very happy with the n6 and tmobile
So the only benefit Amazon has is a 30 day return vs a 14 day.
simms22 said:
i bought mine over the phone, and got it shipped next day, back in november. im paying $27 a month for it, and am very happy with the n6 and tmobile
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pootown said:
So the only benefit Amazon has is a 30 day return vs a 14 day.
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i guess?
pootown said:
I bought my N5 thu amazon and a soon to be returned Moto X thru Motorola. I am sending the Moto X back and want to try the N6. Any reason not to get it thru T-mobile?
Wifi calling, tethering, anything I will be left out of?
The main plus for me is from my recent issue with the Moto X. I had no roaming on the Moto X in Canada. T-Mobile tried to help me out but took them 3 days to verify nothing was wrong. Found out I needed to create a new APN. After doing so and confirming it was correct with Moto cust. support it still did not work. Had I not been within my 14 days I wouldn't be able to return, if same happens thru T-Mobile they would replace.
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APN's won't help make roaming work, unless you are only having problems obtaining data service. The APN settings are ONLY responsible for the DATA portion of the connection, and can't even be tried until after the phone is already connected to a network.
In Canada, a tmobile sim will roam on either Wind (same AWS spectrum as tmobile US) or Rogers (different frequencies from tmobile, but same as ATT). It is *unlikely* that you would be able to obtain any LTE service in Canada, Wind doesn't have any, and Rogers has everything completely screwed up. As a Wind customer, I am *supposed* to be able to roam on Rogers LTE when outside of my area, but it just does not work.
So to obtain service in Canada, you would need to make sure that your phone isn't forced/restricted to LTE. To obtain data service, you would have to make sure that you have selected TMO's UMTS APN, not their LTE APN.
Yeah, I was on both Rogers and Telus but needed to roam on the 2G network. I was in country just a couple days and didn't need the LTE, plus it they don't have it way up north where I was at. I am with T-mo specifically because of the free 2G roaming they offer. The new APN was supposed to resolve the problem specifically for 2G roaming. I think now I'll exchange the MotoX and ask for an extended trial since I will leave the country again in a couple weeks. If that doesn't work I'll give the Moto a try. It's the same as the Moto but if I buy N6 thru T-Mobile they will be responsible for assuring the 2G roaming features work.
doitright said:
APN's won't help make roaming work, unless you are only having problems obtaining data service. The APN settings are ONLY responsible for the DATA portion of the connection, and can't even be tried until after the phone is already connected to a network.
In Canada, a tmobile sim will roam on either Wind (same AWS spectrum as tmobile US) or Rogers (different frequencies from tmobile, but same as ATT). It is *unlikely* that you would be able to obtain any LTE service in Canada, Wind doesn't have any, and Rogers has everything completely screwed up. As a Wind customer, I am *supposed* to be able to roam on Rogers LTE when outside of my area, but it just does not work.
So to obtain service in Canada, you would need to make sure that your phone isn't forced/restricted to LTE. To obtain data service, you would have to make sure that you have selected TMO's UMTS APN, not their LTE APN.
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Hello everyone!
I just bought an att samsung galaxy s6 and had it unlocked. I currently have straight talk service and it is completely horrible! The coverage map shows excellent service in my area. My friends have straight talk service and their phones have awesome service and blazing fast 4g lte speeds. My friends have branded straight talk phones (like galaxy s3 etc). My att S6 is horrible though.
Im sitting beside my friend right now. He has straight talk branded galaxy s3. Both his phone and my phone are both GSM sim phones using the same band and towers. We both installed speedtest app and used the exact same test server. He would go first and I would go when his speed test was finished. My friend got like 35 mbits down and 17 mbits up. I got 1 mbit down and 0.76 mbit up.
I have called tech support about 20 times trying to figure out why my phone is so slow but nobody can figure it out. I have heard ever excuse from my phone needs factory data reset to my phone uses different towers than my friends phones (which one has an unlocked att s4 phone).
Does anyone know why my phone is so slow and my friends phones are blazing fast? Any help is appreciated.
Oh, btw... my phone and my friends phones have exact same apn setting etc.
StraighTalk have 2 different Sim Card, one for the T-Mobile phone and one for the AT&T version, make sure you got the AT&T version, cause if you have the T-Mobile one, the reception is horrible. That happed to me and I order a new AT&T version Sim card from them and that solve the problem.
I do have the att sim card in my phone. I bought the byop kit and it has the tmobile sum still in the package. Tech support also says I have the correct sim and everything is provisioned correctly on their end. I've verified my sim card number with about 4 different techs.
The Devices contains ALL bands required for Sprint and T-mobile, WCDMA, CDMA, and GSM.
I know that I can not "Activate" The ProjectFi SIM Card on my Note 5, which is why I'm looking at buying a used Nexus 6 off of Craigslist to use for activation, however, a few things I would like to know.
The image you see here is of my Samsung Galaxy Note 5 on T-mobile (SM-N920T) with an Unactivated (yet) ProjectFi SIM Card inserted.
On imgur dot com, put a slash and then 7DaTmAg to see the picture
This shows that even without being unlocked, the Note 5 has Signal and decent 4G LTE Connectivity.
What I am asking is:
1) Since this device includes all the bands required for Sprint AND T-Mobile AND can run the ProjectFi app without crashing, and has native WiFi Calling built-in:
A) Will it to be able to handle the Google ProjectFi Seamless network switching between Sprint and T-Mobile?
A-1)Or would it have to be unlocked first to be able to do this? Or would it not do it, either way?
B) Would it support WiFi Calling through ProjectFi?
And C) On an off note, here...If my device gets blacklisted by T-mobile due to non payment (They are just too expensive and not providing the service I need where I live), Would that affect my operational status on ProjectFi's service?
DaddyTj32 said:
The Devices contains ALL bands required for Sprint and T-mobile, WCDMA, CDMA, and GSM.
I know that I can not "Activate" The ProjectFi SIM Card on my Note 5, which is why I'm looking at buying a used Nexus 6 off of Craigslist to use for activation, however, a few things I would like to know.
The image you see here is of my Samsung Galaxy Note 5 on T-mobile (SM-N920T) with an Unactivated (yet) ProjectFi SIM Card inserted.
On imgur dot com, put a slash and then 7DaTmAg to see the picture
This shows that even without being unlocked, the Note 5 has Signal and decent 4G LTE Connectivity.
What I am asking is:
1) Since this device includes all the bands required for Sprint AND T-Mobile AND can run the ProjectFi app without crashing, and has native WiFi Calling built-in:
A) Will it to be able to handle the Google ProjectFi Seamless network switching between Sprint and T-Mobile?
A-1)Or would it have to be unlocked first to be able to do this? Or would it not do it, either way?
B) Would it support WiFi Calling through ProjectFi?
And C) On an off note, here...If my device gets blacklisted by T-mobile due to non payment (They are just too expensive and not providing the service I need where I live), Would that affect my operational status on ProjectFi's service?
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Yes I just resurrected the heck out of this thread!!!
Did you ever use your note 5 on fi? I am contemplating it but need a little confirmation add I have not been able to find any solid info of if it users sprint as well.
No response, huh? I have a N920T that was on T-Mobile but just cancelled the service. Currently using hangouts to talk while I figure this out.
Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk
This thread sure wants to stay alive. I can answer this to some extent, however. I used my Fi sim in my international unlocked Note 5 for a bit as a test. I have a Nexus 6p so I activated it using that phone since I'm pretty sure thats the only way to activate the sim the first time. I also force switched the phone to Tmobile before removing the sim and putting it my Note 5. I used it for a few hours and data was fine as well as calls/text. I have no experience using it as a long term solution so I can't guarantee it won't stop working down the road, but it worked for me for an evening.
I would think the sprint note 5 would work best on this service but I've never seen anyone mention it in the sprint forums.