Straight Talk, a subsidiary of Verizon’s Tracfone provider, now offers a prepaid 5G home internet service that you can sign up for without going through a credit check. The $45-per-month service uses Verizon’s 5G and 4G networks and a router, available at “nearly 2,000 Walmart stores nationwide,” according to a press release, to provide Internet at home without a company requiring a modem. must join. But while the company considers it an affordable option, there are definitely some considerations to keep in mind when looking for the cheapest mobile internet possible.
Compared to Verizon’s 5G home internet plans, Straight Talk’s home internet is cheaper in most cases. Verizon’s 5G Home service costs $50 per month with autopay and $60 without, and the 5G Home Plus tier is $70 with autopay and $80 without. At those prices, you will save at least $5 per month by going with the Straight Talk option. (Although there’s an asterisk that we’ll get to in a moment.)
Verizon offers you a pretty good deal on its home internet if you also use some of its phone plans
However, if you have the Verizon 5G Do More, 5G Play More, 5G Get More, or One Unlimited for iPhone plans for your phone, those monthly prices drop to $25 and $35 respectively. Those aren’t budget-oriented cellular plans by any means, but if you’re trying to optimize every dollar and get mobile internet, it’s worth counting to see if it would be a better deal to go with the combo.
It’s also worth noting that the Straight Talk home internet plan seems to have some speed limitations compared to Verizon’s; the press release promises “speeds of up to 100 Mbps on 5G or 50 Mbps on 4G LTE.” Meanwhile, Verizon’s Basic 5G Internet Plan promises 70 Mbps on LTE and 85-300 Mbps on 5G; go with the Plus plan and you might even get 1,000 Mbps if you’re lucky enough to live close to an Ultra Wideband high-band tower.
Another thing that hurts the Straight Talk option’s value proposition is that you have to buy the router for $99, while Verizon’s plans include it at no extra cost. That means it will take 20 months before you actually see any savings from the $5 per month cheaper price for Straight Talk’s service. To be fair, that time frame drops to about seven months compared to the non-autopay price.
That router doesn’t seem to be from Verizon, by the way recently announced upgraded home internet router. It supports tri-band Wi-Fi 6E, while Straight Talk says its router is dual-band and uses the less powerful Wi-Fi 6. ), but since you really have to pay for the router, it would have been nice to get the better ones.
There are good reasons for this service to exist – it should probably cost a little less
I am aware that I may have come across a little bad on this service. I just want to make it clear that I think it’s a good thing that it exists and that Verizon is making 5G home internet available to people who (like me) can’t pass a credit check or who need the ability to cash their account. I wish it would give them a service that is actually budget friendly, rather than just a tiny bit cheaper, as long as you last long enough for the savings to add up to the cost of the router.
Incidentally, I also wish T-Mobile hadn’t in fact made the exact same move when it announced to be credit check-free 5G home internet service via Metro. Although you can at least expect the same internet speeds as prepaid customers, provided you live in an area with reasonable coverage.
