Android Coming Soon?

Sure looks like it!

This video certainly appears to be genuine.

No contract? No problem!

A buddy of ours was raving about Straight Talk. We asked him if this was his first experience with a prepaid, no-contract phone.

He said that it was and that he'd NEVER sign a contract to use a phone again. "It's like waking up from a bad dream," he said. "What the hell was I thinking?"

Good question.

Why on earth do we think it's normal and natural to sign a two-year contract to use a phone, and sign another one later to get a new phone?

Like they say on the TV cop shows, "Who benefits?"

Not you.

The customer is tied to a company for an extended period of time. The "free" phone they got is paid for over time with higher charges, hidden fees and other costs.

Nothing free about it!

With Straight Talk, you buy your phone and add service every 30 days. You want to change phones or service plans, you just buy what you want. No strings attached.

How easy is that?

Very easy.

Who needs a contract? Not you -- or anyone.

You can click here to get Straight Talk.

Straight Talk at Walmart

Check out the selection of Straight Talk phones and Airtime at Walmart and Walmart.com.

Straight Talk = Straight-Forward Savings

From The Check Out Blog, by Walmart Associates:

"One major expense for our customers is their monthly wireless phone bill. To help address this expense Walmart worked with TracFone, the largest prepaid company in America, to test a new service called Straight Talk. We initially tested the Straight Talk program during this summer in roughly 200 stores. The customer reaction was immediate. In fact, the response was so overwhelming that we will be launching this new program nationwide."

Click here to read more.

How to get started with Straight Talk

It's easy!

If you have a Walmart store nearby, stop in, chose your phone, decide which 30-Day Service Plan you want -- Unlimited or All You Need -- and you're ready to rock!

If you want to order online, it's just as easy.

Just go here to get started. This is what you'll see.



You'll be asked for your zip code (or the zip code where the phone will be used the most), to confirm coverage.

After you do that, you'll wind up here...


...where you'll chose your phone and 30-Day Service Plan.

You can get started for as little as $59.99 with an LG100C and a 30-Day All You Need Plan, with 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts plus 30MB of Mobile Web Access. Free shipping, too!

It's an easy way to get started, and the phone is yours to keep. After 30 days, simply purchase another 30-day plan. That's it.

The tipping point

Gary Kim: "Wal-Mart's new “Straight Talk” prepaid service, offered at the $30 and $45 levels, could end up being the “tipping point for millions of consumers who are already considering moving away from expensive contract-based cell phone service,” says Allen Hepner, New Millennium Research executive director.

Hepner believes that the $30 plan (with 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts per month, mobile Web access and no-extra cost 411 calls, with no contract and no penalties) and the $45 plan (unlimited calling, texting, mobile Web and 411) that Wal-Mart now offers under the “Straight Talk” brand are going to get serious attention."

Click here to read more.

Straight Talk is "the 'invisible hand' at work"....

... bringing you the lowest cell phone prices in history," according to Dr. Mark J. Perry, a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the University of Michigan.

Click here to read his blog post.

Straight Talk means "new competition for U.S. wireless providers"

Bloomberg.com: "Walmart could grab sales from competitors by expanding the availability of low-priced plans, even as wireless growth slows, said Michael Nelson, an analyst at Soleil/Nelson Alpha Research. Walmart is entering the fastest-growing part of the almost saturated U.S. mobile-phone market, he said.

'Walmart has a history of being, in many cases, a category killer,' New York-based Nelson said in a telephone interview. “I would expect the increasing proportion of new wireless sales to be sold through the big box retailers and indirect dealers versus traditional, company-owned stores."


Click here to read the full story.

No contracts with Straight Talk!

"What about contracts? Nope, you won’t find any contracts with Straight Talk."

Click here to read more.

"New Walmart cell phone plans are designed to say the consumer nearly 500 dollars a year."

Huliq News: "Its $30 dollar monthly cell phone plan includes many goodies. It will have 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts, 30MB of mobile Web access, nationwide coverage and 411 calls at no extra charge. For these types of services we are all paying an average of $78 dollars a month. The New Walmart cell phone plans are designed to say the consumer nearly 500 dollars a year.

The company says that its $45 dollar cell phone plan will give the consumer the following services. It will have unlimited services such as minutes, text and mobile web. The Walmart 45 dollar plan will also have a nationwide coverage and 411 Information calls at no extra charge.

These cheaper prices will take away the market share from the other major cell phone service providers. However, the consumer will gain from it. There is no reason one should be locked in an expensive cell phone service plan in the 21st century. In fact, I am looking forward to this new price drop in cell phone services and commend Walmart with this new bold step of Straight Talk cell phone plan."

Click here to read the full article.

Straight Talk In The News

"Wal-Mart is set to launch a national no-contract cell phone program for consumers who don't want to be tied down to a carrier for years'-long contracts.

The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer has reached an agreement with Straight Talk, a service of TracFone Wireless, the Miami-based subsidiary of America Movil, owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.

Wal-Mart's entry into the no-contract world could serve as a 'tipping point for millions of consumers who are already considering moving away from expensive contract-based cell phone service,' said New Millennium Research Council Executive Director Allen Hepner, in a statement..."

Click here to read the full article.

Straight Talk rocks Atlanta

Atlanta is one of the test markets for Straight Talk's retail roll out.
Pali Capital Telecom Analyst Walter Piecyk traveled there to evaluate the success of the service and its reception at retail. He was pretty impressed.

Here's the video of his comments.

Genuine Straight Talk

I was doing an online search on the term "straight talk" a few weeks ago and I came upon a bunch of stories about a new cell phone service called... "Straight Talk."

Imagine that!

I was trying to find the origin of the term and how it had been subverted by the media but this was far more interesting: a no-contract phone that offered 30 days of service for either $30 or $45 with 1,000 minutes of talk and 1,000 texts, or unlimited talk and text.

To have unlimited phone service for $45 a month seemed like a great deal to me but apparently the phone industry was freaking out over it, if you believed the online reports (like here, here and here.)

But my AT&T contract had just expired and I was thinking about dumping it for another company with better coverage. I just about freaked when I read that Straight Talk runs on Verizon's network! I asked around and my friends told me that they loved the Verizon coverage; no dropped calls, dead spots etc.

So when I dug into it a bit and saw the phones that Straight Talk offered, I was a little disappointed -- at first.

But when I thought about how I used my phone -- to talk and text and maybe check out a website here and there -- the Moto RAZR was more than fine! And the 30MB of included data was fine, too; it's the equivalent of 350 typical web pages, I learned. Works for me!

The only thing was that Straight talk was available in some "select" Walmart stores -- none near me. But that wasn't an obstacle. I ordered it online here and had it delivered to my local Wally Mart for pickup.

Easy!

I'll post a more later about what I think of it and how it works but so far so good!