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Straight Talk iPhone 5, after the iOS 7 update, visual voicemail is gone. I tried restoring, resetting the net work settings, called the carrier and had them try to rest the voicemail, none has worked. Now what?
iPhone 5, iOS 7
BYOP for the iPhone works without the need for this trick on STRAIGHT TALK. The past couple carrier updates make the need for this, or editing plist files, or jailbreaking unecessary. Remove all your cell profiles, reset your network settings, and sit back and enjoy. The latest carrier settings update sets these settings correctly for you based on your sim. If you have an iPhone and Straight Talk, Text, MMS, and Cell all work without the need to do anything, but put your sim card in and turn on your iPhone.
FYI, I brought my own iPhone to Straight Talk from AT&T.
That's true Alex, but this thread is about Visual Voicemail. Many people, like Doctom_66, are able to get it working after some mysterious chats with Straight Talk, while others, like me, are not.
After posting on straighttalkwirelessforum.com, I was sent a private message which linked to a chat. In the chat I was simply told Visual Voicemail is not supported. Period. No trying, no escalating, no recourse. I said many people have gotten it to work through ST support, but no discussion.
It is curious to me why they do this Forum --> Private Message --> Chat thing to tell you that simple answer. If they just post it in the forum as a response instead, wouldn't that be a lot easier? And everyone would get the message? Why are they trying to hide this except when someone specifically inquires?
I see, thanks.
I got fed up with Straight Talk a few days ago. I have never gone above 2 Gigs a month data usage and monitor my usage and I received a warning about my usage. I also lost my debit card and forgot to update Straight Talk with my new one and I was told I lost my phone number after 3 days of non-payment (while I waited for my new card and card number, I thought it would still be there as it was on every other MVNO I have ever used including Virgin Mobile for Sprint).
That was the last straw. I switched to AIO Wireless which uses AT&T. It costs $55 a month for 2GB of 4G then throttled down, with unlimited talk and text or $70 for 8GB of 4G. It also has visual voicemail. Only downside is the 4G is capped at 8MB down and 1MB up. No biggie; that's fast enough to watch netflix without a hiccup if I wanted to.
Wish I could switch to Walmart's Family Plan (T-Mobile MVNO for $45 for 2.5GB 4G with visual voicemail), but I live outside a big city so my covereage is 2G pretty much until I wander 45 minutes towards any of 3 big cities around me in NC.
Apple has a good document up with capabilities of all MVNOs in the US and if they support 4G and VV. Don't remember the link, but I got there through the iPhone Tech Specs area on Apple.
I always was bothered by the"let's take this offline" replies from ST. Why act like you are trying to hide something. Post a reply so that the rest of the masses can get an idea of what is going on. I think if you ask them, they would still tell you there isn't a problem. The VVM problem was one thing, but not getting voicemail notifications is a serious issue for me. ST service is a turd. I have rarely dealt with such a poor attitude in a service related company. I obviously just got lucky with the last person on that helped me on chat. I described the problem, she said give me a minute I will reprogram and update something, it will be up and running in a minute. That was totally different then all other times I have tried to deal with this before.
According to Apple, Straight Talk OFFICIALLY does NOT support Visual Voicemail or 4G:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1937?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
AIO Wireless does and works on AT&T.
When porting over your phone number, I believe your account number is your IMEI (according to AIO - haven't ported it over yet so not positive, but I'll update when I do in a couple days) and your PIN should be available on your Straight Talk Account online.
AIO normally charges you $10 for a sim, but if you call their porting department, they might mail you one for free (they did for me when I called them telling them that the part asking for number porting information errored out with incorrect info).
Message was edited by: Alex Bratu
I agree, Doctom_66, it is a strange support setup Straight Talk has.
Alex, earlier you mentioned Walmart's Family Mobile plan. I checked it out and it looks like it might be good, it's actually only $40 for the first phone and $35 for additional ones if I'm reading it right. But there is not a lot of info on Walmart's site about it. Also, Family Mobile is not listed in Apple's list of carriers and what features they provide. Do you know if Family Mobile supports visual voicemail?
And you said you can't use Family Mobile because you only have 2G access where you live. Wouldn't it just use that if no 3G is available?
Walmart's Family Mobile runs on T-Mobile's network. You should make sure you have coverage where you live. My coverage was 2G for about 30-35 miles around me. Not great, but my brother lives in Greensboro and has it on his iPhone 4 (he has visual voicemail and according to Gizmodo (http://gizmodo.com/5974461/walmarts-iphone-5-data-plan-is-ridiculously-cheap) visual voicemail IS supported on it. He pays exactly what you mentioned and has an additional line for his wife. He told me he streams Pandora all day at work (no company shared wi-fi) and never hits his budget of 2.5GB at the end of the month.
Yeah, it would use 2G of no 3G is available, but I often use my phone to mail PDF's to print while I'm away from Wi-Fi and on 2G, it's like a 14.4k dialup modem. It's unbearably slow for a 2mb file and loading up Maps when you need it right away is the difference between making the right turn in time or having to pull over and wait for it to load. Just my experience. If you are doing basic data things and just talking on the phone, then it's not an issue - at all.
T-Mobile BTW is the only US carrier that support's the iPhone's HD Voice technology and it's available now. You can also talk and surf at the same time just like on AT&T (I have used this SOOOOO many times when I needed directions while driving and talking to someone and missed it when I switched to Virgin Mobile briefly).
Actually that Gizmodo article is about Straight Talk, not Family Mobile, and it's wrong about that. I've read some statements online that Family Mobile doesn't have visual voicemail, but it sounds like your brother does? Well, might give it a try when my ST month is near over, although they charge $25 just to get the SIM.
Heck, even if Family Mobile doesn't have visual voicemail, that puts it on a par with ST, and it's cheaper.
I don't know how I missed that; then it makes no sense at all. They say it supports it, Apple's doc says it doesn't. Some people had it and still do, others don't. Good lord, this is exactly why I'm leaving.
FYI, I have confirmed this myself, I have done it to test Walmart's Family Plan service. You can order a FREE T-Mobile Nano Sim from this address (http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-phone/T-Mobile-Nano-SIM-Card-Prepaid) and then call Walmart's Family Plan Customer Service and you can set up an account using that sim. You do NOT have to purchase their $25 Starter Kit in order to set up service, you just need a compatible T-Mobile Sim.
Worth the time ordering even if you don't use it!
Holy cow, that's great info, thanks! I just ordered two, a standard and micro, for my wife and me. Not even any shipping cost. This will make it much easier to try Family Mobile.
Let us know your results.
I am loving AIO Wireless. Finally have visual voicemail and LTE on an AT&T MVNO for $55 flat!
Now I'm actually thinking of going with AIO also. I'm getting pretty confused about resellers on the T-Mobile network. Simple Mobile told me I would only get 2G on their/T-mobile network. This didn't make sense but they assured me it was true. So it sounds like any GSM iPhone would only get 2G on on T-Mobile reseller, unless they have a model tweaked for that network? I'm afraid the more I bounce around trying these carriers, the more likely I am to lose my number. AIO may be a safe harbor - until they blend it with Cricket - then all bets are off.
Oh gosh damnit! I didn't know AIO was in acquisition with Cricket. Now I'm freaked out everything will change for the worse. And I was finally happy with a carrier and now this. Just my luck; this has been a horrible year, so why stop now that we're almost at the end of it.
Per Straight Talk representative (this fixed my phone)..
1 .While on Wi-Fi, open Safari and type in iapnupdatetfdata.straighttalk.com.
2. Tap Install.
3. Tap Install Now.
4. Enter your pass code if prompted.
5. Tap Done.
6. At this point you can exit your browser, turn off Wi-Fi, and re-boot your phone.
7. With Wi-Fi off, access Safari to ensure your data connection is working.
After following these instructions my visual voicemail was restored!
-Enjoy!
Unfortunately this did not work for me. Still no visual voicemail...
Straight Talk iPhone 5, after the iOS 7 update, visual voicemail is gone. I tried restoring, resetting the net work settings, called the carrier and had them try to rest the voicemail, none has worked. Now what?
