My contract with Sprint is up (has been for a while) and my trusty, banged up, many times dropped, case/screen replaced, on it's 4th battery Blackberry is finally giving up the ghost despise my repairs over the years.

Has anyone used StraightTalk? I'm thinking of picking up a cheap 2-3yr old BB on eb*y and just running one of their cheap pay as you go plans.

If I stick it out with sprint I'm looking at double the monthly cost, plus a little bit off $$ up front to "buy" a subsidized phone with a physical keyboard.

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$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment

I have had Straight Talk for a while. good coverage n most urban areas. Bargain rates. 45/month unlimited talk, text & data. You can use you own unlocked phone by buying their SIM card, or go with their phones.

Straight Talk and Tracfone = zero issues. Great coverage out west and you can't beat the price. My son claims TMobile prepaid is a bit cheaper.

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You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

Cool, I think I'll make the jump soon. I was going to get a fancy pants Photon Q (touchscreen, slider, 4G LTE, apps, blah blah blah) but then I would be paying $100 upfront and still be stuck with my $110/month bill. That's $1,380 a year. Ouch.

Soooo...BlackBerry 9780 it is. Handles the way I'm used to, $100ish up front, and $55/month after that. $660/yr is much easier to swallow.

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$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment

I'm not a heavy user, but from my perspective contracts are for suckers.

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You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

Might want to take a look at Virgin Mobile - no contract, cheap cheap rates, uses the Sprint network. Been very happy with them for a couple years now.

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1961 220b: first project car - sold.
2000 CLK 430: first modern Benz - sold.
2001 CLK 55: OMG the torque!!! - sold
1972 280SE 4.5: Baby Gustav
1991 300TE 4Matic: Gretel the Snow Bunny - sold
1978 300SD: Katz the Free Man - given away
1980 Redhead: Darling Wife

Straight Talk is good. Be warned if you exceed your limit (despite them saying its unlimited data, its not) they will just shut off your data rather than throttle you. Most users wont exceed it unless they're doing things like streaming movies and tethering constantly though, and you do get advanced warning.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Check out Google's Nexus 4. $300 unlocked and the thing is a little rocketship. With how good the Swype and speech to text is nowadays, i dont miss the keyboards one bit.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Make sure you get the correct phone or it will not work. You have options but do your research. I went with Net10 wireless. Straight talk and Net 10 are both owned by Trackfone.

With Net 10, I purchased an unlocked phone that is compatable with AT&T. I believe the only phones that use sim cards and get proper data access are the AT&T compatable phones. They work off the GSM network for the phone and HSDPA and HSPA or up to 3g and for 4g it uses HSPA+ for data. The 3g phone we have is using HSDPA. It is still very quick and I clocked the phone at 12.5+ MBPS.

Though the systems use Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon systems, you have to buy those carriers phones directly through Net 10 or Straight Talk for the phones to work properly. In other words, you can't buy a used phone from Sprint or Verizon and have it activated through Net 10 or Straight Talk. Again, you can only do that and have great data transmission with unlocked phones that run off the AT&T compatable network. T-Mobile unlocked phones will work but the data speed will be slow at 2g.

Some really cool phones here. HDC Galaxy Note 2 GT N7102 android phone - $175.00 Just make sure they are compatable with the data sources. You want GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. Some of the phones also work with CDMA so you can effectively use the dual band phones anywhere in the world. They are great for travel over seas. Just buy a prepaid sim card in the area you want to travel so you don't rack up huge roaming charges.

I've checked out modern touch phones, and I just can't do it. I need the tactile feedback. So It's going to be a Droid 4 or a BB, and bounce around on the GSM open market.

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$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment

Yes. I'm well satisfied with them. Over 1.5 years with them.

Check the coverage maps. I've got virgin mobile, and love it.

Great customer service too.
~Nate

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95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)

They use Sprint's towers.

Thanks for the input. I think I'll be good to go with a BB or Droid 4, and some fiddling-I've found a couple threads where other people were able to get them running GSM on US soil

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$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment

I have a Google Nexus 4 and i'm using Solavei (no contract, $49 a month unlimited everything. Uses Sprint's network.

I dumped Virgin Mobile where I was only paying $25 a month (300 minutes only (no nights and weekends, no mobile to mobile 300 minutes period.) unlimited texts and data) because they have atrocious customer service.

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'O=00=O'
bmw 2002.
long live the legend