Not long after Net10 rolled out Verizon BYOD support yesterday, a HowardForums poster with a known track record for providing accurate information on future StraightTalk products and services has shed more light on the relative silence from the brand, despite the recent announcement originating with the brand late last month. StraightTalk was expected to launch Verizon BYOD service on March 26th, only to delay the launch until later that week and remain silent on the issue.
Now, the poster has offered an update with the Verizon BYOD rollout now expected for the first week of May, though he’s cautioned that it may change again due to more delays, owing to StraightTalk’s tendency to change plans at the last minute while offering little in the way of updates, and even pushing up launches without warning.
On top of the revised launch schedule, the rollout of Verizon BYOD service is expected to lead up to the rollout of official 4G LTE support later that month into June, with a new wave of LTE capable smartphones as well as updates being rolled out for the Verizon-powered iPhone 5 which will enable LTE support, albeit with the still unacknowledged monthly data cap of 2GB, despite previous statements to the contrary in the media.
Should these claims pan out in the given timeframe, this would set up StraightTalk to be the third MVNO to rollout LTE support on prepaid, as little-publicized Sprint MVNO Voyager Mobile currently offers unlimited LTE service on its two of its three service plans, but it’s appeal is hamstrung by the requirement of purchasing handsets at full price and the still limited availability of Sprint LTE service in spite of ongoing expansions. Another Sprint MVNO in Ting also offers LTE access, but is again hamstrung by the same handset cost and coverage limitations.
In contrast, the purported availability of Verizon 4G LTE on StraightTalk and new smartphones would allow more people access to the updated data network at a much lower cost than current postpaid rates, which has been a long-held desire by many StraightTalk customers after Verizon’s new deal with the brand introduced smartphones to the lineup in 2012.
Finally, in related StraightTalk news the MVNO is now offering iPhones directly on its portal with the following models available in select markets:
Apple iPhone 4 8GB – $450
Apple iPhone 4S 16GB – $550
Apple iPhone 5 16GB – $650
Apple iPhone 5 32GB – $750
Apple iPhone 5 64GB – $850
The phones are available without the special financing promotion currently available via Walmart, which had a timed exclusive on the iPhone offering.
Verizon LTE on Straight Talk would be very disruptive especially if the $45/month price stays. I’m looking forward to it happening.
FYI, Ting had LTE long before Voyager and recently started activating Sprint LTE phones with LTE working.
Straight Talk’s sister Tracfone brands NET10 and Telcel America launched their Verizon BYOD programs Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. I find it hard to believe that it will take Straight Take a month longer to light up their identical option.
When you say “select markets”, does that really mean anything? For example, if an iPhone isn’t offered for my zip code and I KNOW Verizon prepaid works where I live – all I have to do is find a zip code where the iPhone is available and order it. That doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.
Officially, if the iPhone isn’t offered in your zip code, it’s unavailable. Unofficially though, it’s trivial to bypass the exclusion. It’s only allowed to sell the iPhone where there’s little risk that those that do buy it won’t have coverage issues or risk losing money in markets where the sales volume just isn’t there to justify carriage.
StraightTalk has also officially excluded markets from AT&T products, such as the Galaxy SII and the Nokia smartphone line after their contractual falling out earlier this year, but you can still buy them online in markets where AT&T is the only option available.
Too bad I cannot use my Droid X from Pageplus on either Net10 or Telcel.
I took the phone off Pageplus last week. I tested the ESN last week on Net10 and Tecel, and they were ok, I tested the ESN again on both networks today, and they were rejected 🙁
Do you know if there is any update for the iPhone 5 on straight talk to get 4G LTE?
Does anybody know if the LG Ally from Verizon works with the straight talk plan??