Straight Talk Goes Unlimited for $45

The sound you just heard was the gauntlet being slammed down in the wireless industry. Tracfone’s Straight Talk brand, based like Page Plus Cellular on Verizon’s nationwide network, just launched an unlimited talk-and-text offering to augment its previous single-plan lineup. The price: a rather impressive $45.

The $45 price point is impressive because it undercuts all other prepaid unlimited offerings, and in some cases even those of unlimited-only providers like MetroPCS and CricKet. The Straight Talk plan includes unlimited voice, text and directory assistance, with 30MB of data access thrown in for web browsing and picture messaging.

In comparison, Boost Mobile charges $50 for similar service (albeit with unlimited low-speed data and walkie talkie access on the Nextel network). Virgin Mobile’s unlimited voice plan is $50, messaging is another $10 and the equivalent amount of data access is right between $5 and $10 price points on Virgin Mobile’s lineup.  Even CricKet and MetroPCS cost $45 to $50 per month for an equivalent amount of unlimited features, though CricKet and MetroPCS have taxes and fees in addition to their plan base rate well in excess of the sales tax on Straight Talk refills. Competing on the same turf, Page Plus Cellular’s unlimited plan is $2.49 per day (or roughly $75 per month) for voice alone.

One big benefit of Straight Talk over its rivals is the Verizon network, which is now the U.S.’s largest cellular network by land area as well as population covered. This is due to Verizon’s recent acquisition of Alltel, a predominantly rural carrier that also had (and still has, for the moment) a few high-quality prepaid plans. Verizon’s network was more far-reaching than Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, CricKet or MetroPCS’s networks even before the Alltel buyout, but now there’s simply no contest as to which carrier has the biggest territory covered by its own towers.

There are some drawbacks to the Straight Talk service. Phone selection is rather limited; the Motorola Razr v3a isn’t exactly the hottest phone on the block, sporting a mere VGA camera. None of the three phones available has high speed data access, but then again that omitted feature might be a benefit since you’re less likely to use up the included 30MB of data before the month’s up. There are also a few taxes and fees on top of the $45 monthly service charge, but these are about the same as sales tax on the $45 top-up, and Boost Mobile is the only big provider that doesn’t have such fees. Lastly, Verizon’s coverage, while rather enormous as single-carrier networks go, isn’t quite ubiquitous, and when you’re off their network, you’re offline except for 911 calls. This is in contrast to Tracfone, whose coverage footprint is identical to whatever contract carrier’s network (usually AT&T or Verizon) their phones are activated on.

In sum, Straight Talk’s unlimited plan is sure to please 99% of the folks looking to talk and text without limits for a bearable price wherever they happen to be. If you want a do-it-all phone with oodles of data, Tracfone makes the message clear: go elsewhere. But for talking and texting around town and across the country, consider the $45 gauntlet thrown…a rather tenacious gauntlet, considering $45 won’t even buy you an add-a-line with the iPhone, once you add in the required data plan, taxes and fees.