As expected, Straight Talk and Walmart have launched the prepaid mobile broadband service powered by Verizon Wireless which is now known as the Straight Talk WiFi Mobile HotSpot. In an update to the previous report the hotspot actually features connectivity for up to 5 devices, rather than the single connection initially reported. It is now available for $79.88 in-store and online, with the service plan slate posted below:
The Straight Talk hotspot also marks the third time Verizon has allowed another virtual operator to offer prepaid mobile broadband service, as it currently allows two other resellers access to its 3G and even 4G network, in the case of Millenicom, albeit at slightly lower rates compared to Verizon itself.
It looks good huh, wireless internet for ALL of your devices. Wow! 4 GB for $40.00 for the
internet and I can connect 5 devices at once! Sounds too good to be true! Or is it? Now
lets see, if you like to watch youtube videos which is STREAMING, that 4GB should last
forever right? But wait, it’s only been 20 minutes and my family of 5 are loving the speed
and everything and then……………. STOP! What happened to the internet you guys? It’s
not working. I better call ST tech support, I know they can help me. What? I used up my
$40.00 card? No! That can’t be. All 5 of us were only on for 20 minutes and Bam! The
internet just stopped. It shows I am connected but nothing is coming through. Ugh! What do
you mean streaming video on youtube uses more GB of DATA much more than downloading
internet files, ,mp3’s, pics etc…. O well, I can just by another $40.00 card, that’s all
but wow it sure adds up quick. This is a realistic example of what you get with these
wireless devices, Verizon, AT&T, ETC, all have similar stuff. I know someone who was TIED
down to those low 4gb plans and talk about feeling restrained. He spent upwards of $90 one
month and I told him he should get rid of that unit. But if you just want to use it for
that very quick check of email and news, (just don’t watch the news video because it’s
streaming too) then it may be ok. Now remember folks, most places have FREE wireless
internet no matter where you go to check your email, news and watch streaming video
including youtube and spend 2 hours there and have it free. So if you purchase one of
these devices and waste your hard earned money on one of those plans on top of it, you
will see just how far you go with it. You might as well flush the money you just spent
down the toilet. Let’s face it, how many of you actually use 4 gb in a matter of hours by
yourself lf you like to listen to or watch youtube. Unless your a hermit who only reads
text and does not have your pics, flash or video activated in your internet browser, this
is the thing for you. I hope after you read the very small print, that you see what you
really get and thanks to this review, I just saved you $120.00 for the unit and the
monthly plan. So be careful when you see something like this that looks too good to be
true because it may just drain your wallet.
You need to learn how much data is consumed with streaming, it is huge!
This is not meant for that. A movie will use scores of GB,and this was never designed for that purpose.
Caveat Emptor, research before you buy.
Sounds to me like HE DID learn. Caveat Emptor, indeed. My problem is, when is our American infrastructure going to catch up with Europe? AND why have these mobile broadband device plans continued to offer us NOTHING in the way of real economy? I am tired of hearing the same old excuse about “bogging down the towers/servers”. it is the 21st century! We can do better than this. In his defense, all the carriers advertise “VIDEO STREAMING” as one of the hot points when selling these plans. That makes your insulting argument invalid. Try not to be such an assbag.
Yep….I got suckered!!!! I bought their mobile hotspot thinking to myself….EUREKA!!!!…. I used up the 2.5GB of high speed very quickly apparently…without really even knowing it. Just streaming hulu and Netflix into my TV…. dang. Don’t even think about calling tech support. It is all OUTSOURCED TO some foreign country…I don’t know if these people are Indian or Philipino, Malaysian or whatever…..I almost hung up several times due to the language barrier.
The straighttalk website is h.o.r.r.i.b.l.e I can’t even view the data I have left… It simply won’t even boot up without crashing. I’m thinking to myself…what kind of BS is this… I thought I made a good choice — cheap internet at home with the convenience of taking it everywhere I go……
It was too good to be true.
Extremely overpriced. You can rent an Verizon hotspot for $10.00 per day. I only need a hotsport when I travel which is only occasionally. I am still not happy that I cannot use my cell phone for the occasional need. Have a limitation on the data usage but not on the cell phone. I have complained to the FCC. They contacted Straight Talk. The more people that complain to the FCC the more pressure there will be on Straight Talk.
I returned it and got a full refund. Never again…Straight talk. never a.g.a.i.n.
still looking for something positive . can you face book or check bank statements or email without breaking my wallet? Knowing that streaming is out. Looking for something to take on the road and for camping.
If…And its a BIG if. You were to check the size of the videos that you were trying to stream, you would know that they are substantial in size. A HD youtube video can easily surpass 4GB. A full length Netflix movie 4GB+ any day. User error and ignorance is the problem here, not the technology or the device. RTFM.
thank you thank you thank you. anyone who has had a cell phone plan and has paid for a data plan seperate from their calling and text plan. knows that streaming video is the worst thing you can do.
rest of the website is really good.
Jhony-Marketing http://www.marketingseotools.com
What is funny, is it can be used all month long to surf the web, and even play online games, if you watch your usage. You can play World of Warcraft Daily, as long as you don’t use any addon, and still be below 4gb of monthly data. Streaming is a HUGE data user. The 5gb plan would last the average person who only needs it for mail, and searching for things (not videos) well over 1 month.
Just burned through 5 gb in 11 days doing nothing but email and facebook and google plus. No streaming video or music. I even turned off auto updates on pc. I had a verizon hotspot and never went through 5 gb in a month and watched you tube vids and downloaded music. I think straight talk is doing something to speed up usage to sell more refill cards. Never but again.
Has anyone used this for there xbox live.
Here is some common sense for anyone listening if you are in a T-Mobile area. Get it!
My 50 a month(plus all the ridiculous taxes) gets me unlimited talk/text/web. OK, yes, the web is up to 4G for the first 500MB(clocked from beginning of billing cycle, up to because you might not be on a 4G cell but the MB clock is always running till the magic 500 is hit, and yes they warn you at 400 that you are about to run out of 4G), then dropped to 2G speed for the rest of billing cycle, but is really unlimited.
But wait there’s more! (no I am not an infomercial or work for them) Tethering or hot spot with your phone is, wait for it, FREE. Zip, Nada, Nothing. Just have to have a phone that is capable, most of their smartphones are, some well under $100.
You can up your plan to unlimited 4G on phone for 20 bucks(2GB is $10 more). The beauty is that if you buy unlimited 4G, you get the first 2.5GB tethering or hot spot at 4G and then down to 2G for rest of month. The unlimited 4G is for the phone only.
If you want to get a tablet that is a stand alone, you can get one and if you don’t mind 2G, it is $0 per month( yes nothing) added to your bill and they will even sell you a cellular ipad(example ipad mini cellular 16gb $429) at regular retail and no interest for 24 months. Oh by the way, you could still tether it to your phone if you had the need for speed.
No need for an extra device($$$). No need for separate billing plan for tablet or any device you want to hot spot(more $$$).
My wife has a regular 299 ipad, not a cellular, so you can skip the 130 cellular price difference and turn on hot spot on your phone(hard work I know).
OK, so where are we. Forget international data roaming which is also free, since I don’t get out of the country much, but you may need that, so it’s free.
Oh yeah, I forgot. Buy a phone that has Wi-Fi calling feature. Use your wireless router at the house as your cell tower, perfect reception. That feature though comes at a price of $0 a month(yes free!).
So what are we up to? Oh yeah, $50 and tax. Just saying, T-Mobile not the best coverage, but man if it works, you get a lot of features.
Thanks Tim! I tried tethering and it works well. How silly I was – looking for Internet plan and device when I have already had all that in my phone. Thanks again!
How can u find out if ur phone tethers i dont know ehat that is or how to find out on a phone
Don’t ever buy this straight talk mobile hot spot. it stops working every 10 minutes, and it it limited not unlimited. The two months service card is the lie. the service can end any time in two weeks or 3 weeks, because they don’t want you to watch movies . the more you watch movies or use it too much the more it will expire soon.
If you are not an IDIOT about how data capacity is used (no, you can’t do Netflix streaming or large mpgs etc or Skype), then a GB can last a month of use for emails, web browsing etc easily. Turn off your images and pic data in your browser and you will do better if you just need email text and don’t care about the images.
So for a business user, or light user in remote locations, this is great.
Remember , it is MOBILE 3G, so you can use it in your car (standing still of course).No need to go to McDonalds unless you need larger data capacity.
So, if you don’t care about streaming etc, this is great news for business budget users and folks in the willy wags with no DSL etc to get internet connected.
No contracts is great too. It beats Verizon data plans handily.
Total Scam. I bought 4GB. Used it for a few days and only to check my email and fb. No movies. No downloads of anything and guess what??? It stopped working. I called customer service and they told me that they were not sure why it stopped working. Reset it and let me go back on. two weeks later it stopped working again. thinking I was out of data I went and bought one more gb. I called them back. Again they said they did not think I used up the 4 GB and reset. I put the 1 GB on reserve. A couple days go by and then it stops working again. This time I call back customer service and the man tells me that not only am I out of the 4 gb but I am also out of the 1gb that I had put on reserve. I asked how could this be? He proceeds to ask me if I have set up a password for my network. I said no because no one ever told me I needed to do that. I assumed the first time around when I was on the phone with the representative that the password I entered to go to the 192 website was the password to keep others from using my wifi. WRONG. So the man tells me to call back when I get another card and they will help me set up my password so the wifi wont be public. I buy another refill card come back home, call straight talk and a women walks me through setting up the password. An automatic password pops up and it is ridiculous as in “12345” ridiculous. I ask her if I can change that password because that is so easy ANYONE trying to access my wifi can figure that out. she says no. At this point I am beyound pissed and hang up the phone. I reboot and the network is STILL unsecure. I go back in and change the password myself, rebooted and now I have NOOOOO internet at all. So to sum it ALL up. I spent $115 dollars in a matter of a month on internet that the public was able to use, an assigned passcode that any moron could figure out and data that I wont be able to use. THANK YOU straight talk for ripping me off. PS. Dont expect much from customer service as they can barely speak english.
CLEAR INTERNET works. I first bought T MOBIL hot spot.My grandson lived with me wanted to play his play station on line. 4th day no internet,I paid for the box & highest plan they had. went back to store where I bought it. They said it was all used up. Bought CLEAR HOT SPOT BOX $40. HAVE HAD IT for.1 & 1/2 YEARS.It does not run out.Streaming Movies,Playing PlayStation on Line,Useing my Laptop,Netflix,Etc.I pay $60.00 a month & it’s worth it.
You can connect 5 Devices at once. CLEAR INTERNET
Straight talk wifi hotspot SUCKs…unable to install on Mac or windows. Contacted support. Could not. Mumble. English. DO NOT BUY WALMART STRAIGHT TALK. RIPOFF.. support outsourced to India…and they knew less about product. Then I. Returning
. Lost 45$ in card. Waste …
wish i would have read these reviews before i wasted my money..i used mine up in four days…ofcoarse after i had to beg to talk with the manager, to get mine set up..guess i will sell my box in a yard sale for ten cents
I just want to know can you play x box online with the straight talk mobile hotspot?
So what’s the point of this hot spot? I have straight talk and att/sprint as the carrier. 4g 20meg down and can tether box360 4 laptops and we’d all stream netflix, xfinity,hbogo, all day all week for years now and never had an issue with a data cap. It’s truly unlimited and only 49.98/month.
That’s just a little hint for all you out there. 😉
Wth r u talking about ? You just said you have 3 different cell phone companies on one phone so you can tether? What a idiot! Doesn’t even make sense! BTW its already well know straighttalk is a POS ! Anybody with a brain cell can do just a llittle bit of research and find that T-Mobile is about as good as it gets. But the reality is they all scam us. Not only do they sale these phones as if they are high end laptops, they won’t even let us use the phones like we are suppose too! They put caps on data! Um hello this is a data device!
With 1080p screen. Wtf ? You think I paid 550$ to see email in high def?
I can’t wait to leave this world! Humans suck
Seriously? Have you ever used ST? Straight Talk doesn’t have their own network, depending on the phone you get is who your service is actually through. For example I have two ST Phones…My Phone is through Sprint my wife’s phone is through Verizon. Both in the same house on the same account, so to say that I have ST with carriers Sprint and Verizon, I’m not claiming a bunch of different things as you say…it’s just how they work. Further rather your carrier is any good depends on your area…Where I’m at now ATT sucks but Sorint/Verizon are good and T-Mobile is downright horrible. Go to Central Florida and it’s ATT/Verizon that are the best T-Mobile is next and Sprint is horrible. It just depends on their infrastructure in your area. But considering how you can switch networks with straight talk just by using a different phone, and you get the best of whatever network your on in that area, with truly unlimited everything (Been with ST for over 2 years and never been capped on anything….well over 10k sms a month, don’t even think about keeping track of mins for voice and data well above 10gb a month)…the only downside is their CS. But if you are strong enough in what you are saying and keep pushing it, you’ll get what you deserve. I’ve had a free phone sent to me to replace a defective service (phone worked find just the service in Central Florida for Sprint again), defective phones replaced, lost air time replaced, it’s not bad. Just stick to your guns and you’ll get what you deserve,
Ha! You’re right…humans do suck LOL LOL that last post cracked me up. If wireless Internet issues cause you not to want to be here…I’d hate to see what a real tragedy does lol. Don’t let the wireless scams get ya down my friend. It’s ALL big brother and a scam. Get used to it.
You must be the only person ever, to use a cell phone as a means to play xbox and never get capped. Even a cable company puts caps on there internet. But you want all of us to believe that we can all go get a straight talk plan that offers tether and use it unlimited, with no restrictions, no caps? :-0 yea OK (rolls eyes) you MUST think we stupid! There is a good reason why thousands of people put straight Talk sucks or straight talk scammed me all over the net. But you expect us to believe you? LoL yea OK. WHATEVA hand to face!
I would never consider watching video over one of these devices, I already pay enough for DISH TV.
You know whats funny… i sit here, reading all of your idiotic reviews, when i myself bought the unit at walmart just yesterday… i figured id give it a test drive… so i bought a 1 gb card just to see how much playing my MMORPGS would use data wise, and wow i played for 5 hours and BARELY MADE A DENT IN 1G, if you want to stream high def movies or shows… i suggest getting FIOS or CABLE internet with no DATA CAP, but untill then dont blame the people of verizon and straight talk for giving people who don’t have the option of a wired connection a way to play friggen warcraft. Maybe you should read up on items you are completely clueless about before you spend the money instead of sitting and being a bunch of little bish’s.
Had att no caps but got suckered into switching to straight talk and got capped
To all the folks complaining about Straight Talk hot spot plan being a rip off, even the reps at brands wireless stores will caution you on streaming videos, (or music) and how quickly eats all the data plan very fast. I am a heavy internet user and I bought a usb Huawei with 5GB re-loadable data plan for 90 days (in Europe). I couldn’t even use all the data in 3 month period. I average 6 to 8 hrs of internet use a day (e-mails, web browsing, shopping and rarely some software and music downloading including updates). Again, I never fell short of data I purchased.
Internet movie streaming in the US (and around the world) is still very expensive using hot spot devices. The best way to to do it is on a broadband plan bundle, (which is still very pricy). These is the only true UNLIMITED data plan that will not give you a huge bill.
Cable and phone companies do not sell you anything for extra or free.
It is on their interest to have customers tied up to reoccurring payments and plans. This is very much so in the US where phone plans are still very expensive and one gets very little for the money.
How do u find out if ur phone can tether i dont know alot about stuff like that
I’m computer smart to certain things. When it comes to giga bytes and other stuff like that no. I was like everyone else… Cheap internet cool!! I do t have to deal with dishes and poles. Just hook it up to my one laptop. I didn’t buy the hot spot though cause something inside of me was telling me no this isn’t a good idea. I even asked the woman at walmart. She’s like yeah it’s cheaper, your data won’t go over and cost you more like contracts. She failed though cause she said if you do go over you can simply buy another card. Sweetie I might not be the smartest human on Earth, but I’m not that stupid. Yeah pay 100for the hot spot then 50 for the card. Let’s say I use it up in a day go buy another 50 card. Mmmmmm no thank you.
yes I use mine for playing online with PlayStation and as long as I’m not watching movies or downloading a lot I can play online, email, fb, and a few other things all month no problems for me just gotta be smarter than the device and know your limits and no netflix! lol
Let me tell you how I’m using this device … I dropped my average $70/month bill through TMobile since I live in Maine and there is no 4G with TMobile unless you go waaaay down to the southern portion of the state. So I wasn’t losing anything by letting them go.
Then I went to Walmart and spent $80 to buy the device, and then downloaded a free app to my android phone … Textfree with Voice. This app gives you a dedicated phone number, voice mail, unlimited text messages and you can buy blocks of 100 min for $1.99. The voice quality is very good, but there is a slight delay (3 sec maybe) so people just have to be polite and not talk when the other person is talking LOL! What I then did was purchase 3 blocks of min for $5.97 total. I now have over 400 min … how did I manage that when I only paid for 300 min? Here’s the neat part … Texfree gives you 2 free minutes just for watching a 20 sec advertising video. There’s usually up to 5 videos available each day that you can watch so that’s an extra 10 min a day you can add without paying anything! I watch the videos when I’m at home and on my regular wifi so I don’t use up my GB on the hotspot. So for $15/month now going forward, I have unlimited text msg, voice mail, 1 GB of data, and 400 min a month of calling. And toll free numbers and incoming calls don’t use any minutes! After I make a few calls, I simply watch a couple of short videos to add the minutes back! I should never need to purchase blocks of minutes again, but if I do, they are cheap! Straight Talk works great throughout Maine so this will be my cell phone service from now on. Thank you Straight Talk for coming out with such an inexpensive hotspot option!
“I watch the videos when I’m at home and on my regular wifi so I don’t use up my GB on the hotspot.”
How much do you pay for your “regula wifi” each month? Service provider?
Forgot to add … over the last 2 days I’ve been using it, I’ve been on FB both reading and posting, checked email, downloaded attachments from my email, made at least 2 calls a day, lots of texting, and web browsing. I’m only using about 20-30 mb per day. Granted I only have my phone connected to it, so maybe that’s why, but I know not to stream movies, music, tv shows, download apps, etc. If you use it like I described above, an average user can replace their cell phone service without any regrets!
I have a nifty little place on my phone that tells me how much data I’ve used. So far, nearly 5 GB in 22 days, so I’ll use about 7GB per month. HOWEVER, only 1.4 of that is mobile data, the rest is WiFi. Only 650MB of that is used by the app that I’ll use this hotspot for. No need to be scrolling G+ or Facebook while on this hotspot. Save that for “real” WiFi.
Those who say this is no good, please remember this is meant for a mobile hotspot, not to replace your home internet connection.
Use your brains, use a location aware app that will switch your WiFi connection to your home WiFi when you’re there, or get in the habit of switching it manually, and you’ll be fine. You just have to use this judiciously like we did in the last decade, when we paid for mobile internet on a per MB basis. (We were paying between ten cents and a dollar per MB, this is just over a penny per MB. We’re paying that much now for Satellite phone data, and in ten years, even that will be down to about a penny per MB)
Can I use a 4G Internet thingy and get out the ps3 with out using it all?