Contract-free United States Mobile Virtual Network (MVNO) wireless brands Straight Talk and NET10 Wireless this morning announced they will start selling Apple’s latest iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c this coming Friday, December 15.
According to a media release, customers will be able to pick up their handset full-price or subsidized. The no-contract plans for individuals and families start at $45 per month for unlimited voice calls, text messages and 2.5GB of high-speed data.
The full breakdown is after the break…
If you want to buy the iPhones from Straight Talk and NET10 Wireless full-price, the usual $549/$649 price points for the entry-level iPhone 5c/5s models apply. In addition, qualifying customers can finance hardware interest-free through a Walmart Credit Card if purchased in-store by December 31.
Both Straight Talk and NET10 Wireless, as you know, are wireless brand partnerships between the U.S. retail giant Walmart and TracFone Wireless, which is the U.S. MVNO subsidiary of América Móvil.
According to both the Straight Talk and NET10 Wireless website, folks can pick up an iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c on no-contract 30-day plans with unlimited talk, text and capped data from Straight Talk Wireless and NET10 Wireless.
These plans offer significant savings over traditional contract plans and include the $45 per month Straight Talk tier for unlimited talk, text and 2.5GB of data and the $60 per month Straight Talk bucket which offers everything the $45 plan does, plus unlimited international calls to landline and cellular numbers to more than a thousand destinations in Mexico, Canada, India and in other countries.
As for the NET10 Wireless tiers, they’re offering the $50 per month Friends and Family plan for the first line ($40 for each additional line) and the $65 per month tier with unlimited everything, plus unlimited international calling to users in Mexico, Canada, India and in other countries.
The fine print reveals that unlimited plans include high-speed data which gets capped after you’ve burned through your monthly allowance of two and a half gigabytes.
High speed data is restored once a new 30-day service plan is redeemed at the end of the 30-day plan cycle. Specifically, these plans include up to 400 minutes for mobile-to-mobile to Mexico in each 30-day plan cycle.
The news arrived after Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster found that the iPhone 5s availability has improved to 100 percent in Apple’s U.S. retail stores.