Straighttalk is a cell phone provider promoted by but not a part of Wal-Mart.  They advertise unlimited everything, browsing, email, 411, phone calls, minutes, everything for a prepaid $45 per month.  They will sell you a SIM card for $15 to use on your own GSM phone and you can prepay for the service using that phone or sell you a phone, card and all.  They also have a variety of plans, including one with unlimited international calling to many, not all, countries for $60 per month.

I bought one prepaid unlimited month and a $10 phone in case it didn’t work out.  They overnighted it to me, all for $55.  It was a real problem setting it up, because it takes another phone and going through one redwood of a phone tree to get a person.  However, I did manage to transfer my phone number of 30 years, and get the thing up and working.

I can’t really comment on the speed of the internet connections.  I haven’t figured out how to do that efficiently.  I know I don’t IM, and I get those.  The phone works fine, I have no reason to believe the email won’t, and so far it’s a good deal.  They use both the ATT and Verizon networks, depending upon something or other.  I don’t know.

I will buy a better phone, hoping I can tether it to a laptop for travelling.  It deserves a better trial.  So far it’s a good deal.  I had to shut off the smart part of my smart phone because I could inadvertently run up a $60 data overage with ATT.

Just thought I’d comment in case anyone was curious.  As I said, the more esoteric stuff I’m not aware of, but I don’t think it’s super-fast on data.