A couple of days ago we reported that the AT&T compatible SIM cards had disappeared from the website of popular prepaid carrier Straight Talk Wireless. Apparently this was also the case with another prepaid outlet Net10 as well. This left people going to their sites only the option to purchase a T-Mobile SIM if they wanted to take advantage of their lower than average month to month rates.
Now this development would obviously be news, but it was made into an even bigger story because it coincided with another round of Nexus 4 availability in the Google Play Store. People who had waited for what must have seemed like forever to get a Nexus 4 order in finally succeeded, and now they had just had their carrier tower options for Straight Talk cut in half. Talk about a gut punch. What if they lived in a part of the country where T-Mobile’s service isn’t all that great? Sure you could check your local Walmart or Radio Shack to see if they had any AT&T SIMs left but that was just a shot in the dark. The timing of this development couldn’t have been any worse.
Well now we have some good news to give you. They are coming back. The guys over at Android Police have confirmed that it was just a supply issue and when they ran out they just pulled any mention of AT&T from their website. Now anyone who has dealt with customer service from an MVNO knows that you’re not getting the best in the business. How else do you suppose they can charge so much less than the major players? They skimp in places like customer service, web design, etc. It’s a bare bones operation.
In some ways it’s probably a good thing this happened when it did. I’m the first person to tell you that prepaid is the way to go because I find the carrier plans with their contracts to be huge rip offs. What better way to show the flaws of MVNO’s and their prepaid plans to a huge swath of potential customers than in incident like this? Even still, I’d much rather take poor customer service communications over being locked into a contract for two years and paying through the teeth.
At any rate if you just got or are about to get a shiny new unlocked Nexus 4 and wanted to put it on Straight Talk with an AT&T SIM, sit tight. They’ll be available soon.
Source: Android Police