By now, most consumers found out that any unlimited offer often seems too good to be true. Companies will often promise unlimited services, although there is a catch and there is definitely a cap, but since that’s not mentioned in plain sight, or oftentimes anywhere else, a lot of people fall prey to deceptive advertising. This seems to be the case for WalMart’s recent Straight Talk iPhone 5 unlimited plan.
WalMart introduced in the stores iPhone 5 with pre-paid Straight Talk Wireless, without a contract requirement at $45 per month. The offer promises unlimited talk, text and data for $45 or for $60 you get unlimited international calls to select countries on top of everything else. Straight Talk says this offer will save you around $950 a year, arguing that ‘customers shouldn’t have to choose between saving money and having the latest technology”.
“The advanced iPhone 5 with our unlimited $45 monthly plan and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSEWMT)’s $25 special financing offer is a marriage made in heaven – making it the most affordable premium smartphone offer in America” said F.J. Pollak, CEO and President TracFone Wireless.
But users and mobile experts took a second look at what seemed like a great deal. The unlimited plan is actually limited to a 2GB cap per month, which could be enough for most people, but it’s definitely not living to the promise in the selling pitch. And as PC Mag writes, if you’ve signed the deal before checking out their terms of service, you might find there are some restrictive surprises in there.
The unlimited Straight Talk iPhone 5 plan has the following restrictions: no app downloads from iTunes, no gaming and certainly no browsing the Internet through anything else than the Straight Talk Mobile Web Service. So, if we were to take into account statistics, the unlimited Walmart Straight Talk iPhone 4 plan limits 53 percent of smartphone users from streaming music.
By the way, even if you’re staying within that iPhone 5 unlimited cap, Straight Talk can still cut you down, just because you might “appear likely to generate...abnormally long average call lengths or Mobile Web Access and data usage as compared to the usage of other Straight Talk customers”.
