Since 2007 I’ve been using the LG shine as my cell phone. This dumb
phone sure has gone through a lot and has worked flawlessly up until 2013 when I lost it.
I spent a whole day looking around the area were I lost it, but did not find it. The phone
did everything I wanted and the plan was basically $30 a month. This old plan you can’t
really find anywhere and included unlimited text, mobile-to-mobile, and had free nights
and weekends, but no data. I have a droid tablet and I’m familiar with iOS since I have
had to tweak some “apps” for the tablet and my macbook. I just did not want to do the
smart phone thing for many reasons. The bigger reasons being privacy, costs, and tech
specs of the hardware. So I started looking around and every store I went to had
basically the same scheme. They pushed the iphone or galaxy on you and then got you
into a monthly plan where you pay $100 a month after taxes. I am morally opposed to
apple’s fascist model for mobile, although I like their laptop computers. Apple has really
lost its soul and is too greedy. They tried to push apple maps on everyone and we all saw
how that turned out. They also try to screw over different developers and defend
technology they really had no right to. So I did not really want to get an iphone. After
driving around to mobile stores, costsco, and looking at these smaller mobile companies
(which all sucked) I was getting ready to pay up the money to a major carrier. I
randomly saw some NASCAR driver give a pitch for straight talk and say something
about Walmart, so that led me to just ignore him. Still very concerned about how I was
going to get a phone, I kept looking around the internet. I’ve know about unlocked
phones for a while and how to get wireless capable devices to do some pretty cool things,
but most people I knew just put their unlocked devices on the networks of major carriers.
T-mobile seemed very friendly to unlocked devices, but they kinda suck and their prices
got worst for the unlimited plan. I guess AT&T wanted to buy them out to so they could
have all of the carriers rape their customers for $100 a month (for only a 3GB of data
too). Another problem I had was that I am pretty international now in that I have to
travel to several countries to do business and research. So why would I pay $100 month
when I’m not going to be around for that or worst, deal with my carrier and pay their
obscene international rates? Currently I’m on track to be in the US only until September,
then I’ll be in Israel for a while, but also bounce between a few other countries. So pretty
much not having a phone.

     As I was preparing to choose which major carrier I would allow to rape me, I
found out that the NASCAR people were not pushing bull shit after all. Straight Talk
was a legit service, solved my problems, and cut costs by more than half. Straight talk
also allowed me to keep my same number, choose any phone I wanted, bring an unlocked
device to the network, pay by the month, and do everything online or at Walmart.
Everything else was satisfactory about this company too.

     I ended up looking at phones online (strait talk phones) they have a nice selection, but the prices are a little high. I did not really care since I did the math and knew what the plan was. You pay ~$300 for your phone and over just a few months you make the money back in savings. The galaxy and iphones were ok, but I wanted more so I also looked at unlocked phones. Some shady guys on
other websites were selling unlocked phones, but I did not trust them. Google was also selling their Nexus 4, but a new version is due out soon and it does not have an external
micro-SD. Some of the droids offered from straight talk had outdated tech specs, while
others were acceptable but the phone was just some weird model. Eventually I decided
on the LG Optimus L86C (showtime) as fair tradeoff. However, the straight talk website
was out of stock. After reading around a little, I found out that this was a very popular
route for smart phone users so that is why the model was always sold out. As a last ditch
effort I went to Walmart, walked to the electronics section and picked up the LG
Optimius I wanted right off of the shelf. I also got a $45 unlimited plan that includes
everything. In Walmart I also saw some 9mm ammo, which is very hard to find these
days. I was running low on 9mm and may need the rounds to shot my old phone if it
ever decides to come back. I wanted to buy all of the boxes, but there was a 3 box limit.
I got my boxes and got someone else I saw to buy 3 more with my credit card. For the
phone I also got a 32 GB micro SD card and car charger, but Walmart did not have cases
for it.

I got home and the instructions were so easy to follow. I got my AT&T
account number, activated my phone, and everything worked fine. I did have to setup an
account with strait talk (http://www.straighttalk.com) to pay for the plan with the credit
card, but that was easy. The website is very friendly and they do everything a major
carrier would do. There is even a program to replace your damaged phone, which is a
better deal than anything I’ve seen. After I setup the phone I got everything to work just
the way I wanted it to and downloaded a bunch of nice apps. My camera sucked, but
when I realized there was a piece of plastic over the lens I forgot to remove it was really
good. I also checked the speeds and everything was fast: wifi, 3G, USB transfer,
microSD writing, etc. With my straight talk account I can add any unlocked phone and
pay as I need it. I’m also in the market to get more unlocked droids and this will allow
me to use different phones monthly. With a good GPS receiver I don’t really need the
phone service and I can do some applications in the middle of nowhere. Since straight
talk leases cell towers from other carriers, the service is pretty good or equal to what they
have.

In conclusion, if you can deal with a mid-level droid, you want to pay up
for the costs of an iphone or galaxy S4 upfront, or you have a way to get unlocked
phones, straight talk is a good way to go. Note for unlocked phones you need to order a
special sim card. As long as the plan is around you’ll save a lot of money. When I go to
France and Israel, I will also be able to take my same phone and pay $60 for their
unlimited international plan (Countries Covered (PDF)) that will also
work in other countries I pass through. Straight talk also offers a lot of other good
services that I’ll have to look into. Since I’m a big proponent of unlocked devices and
straight talk is one of the only services left that caters to the users it was an easy decision
to make. My LG Optimius L86C maynot have the tech specs of a new iphone or galaxy,
but it close enough and the external 32GB micro-SD does give me a lot of capabilities.
I’m currently reviewing how the applications run, but between the new android OS and
adequate hardware I think I’ll be ok. Root access on android 2.3 is also nice. The other
phones are also dirt cheap from straight talk. When visiting scientists or other people
come I’ll have one of my old droids ready for them to use with a straight talk plan.