Straight Talk Home Internet Review

As 5G home internet services have become more popular, it was only a matter of time before MVNOs started getting in on the game. Today we’ll look at one of these providers—Straight Talk.

Straight Talk Home Internet is pretty straightforward. Like other 5G home internet services, it offers reasonably speedy service and unlimited data at an affordable price. Straight Talk also has excellent availability, since it runs on a combination of T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T networks.

Is Straight Talk right for you? How does it compare to other 5G home internet providers? What about other rural internet options? We’ve got the answers to all these questions, and more, in this full review.

5G home internet providers tend to have very simple plan choices, but Straight Talk takes it to the next level. There’s one plan, with one price: $45.00 per month. This gets you 20–100Mbps speeds and unlimited data, which is more or less in line with other 5G home internet providers.

This price is more or less in line with other 5G home internet providers. While Verizon and T-Mobile charge a bit more for standalone plans, you can get substantial discounts if you also have wireless service with them. The only discount available with Straight Talk is a $5.00 credit for automatically renewing each month.

That might sound a little pessimistic, but the reality is that $40.00 per month for 100Mbps internet is not a bad price by any means, and this becomes even more true for rural or off-grid customers who only really have expensive satellite internet as an alternative. The unlimited data is an especially nice perk compared to satellite internet—and even many cable plans.

Straight Talk Home Internet advertises speeds of 20–100Mbps. This is, on paper, a good bit slower than what competitors like Verizon and T-Mobile advertise for home internet. What’s important to remember is that this is just on paper.

For example, Verizon advertises speeds of up to 1,000Mbps, but in reality the speeds seen by users are almost always much lower. T-Mobile is more realistic with its advertised speeds, but they’re still pretty optimistic in our experience.

All that’s to say that, while Straight Talk might not quite hit the same top speeds of the major national carriers, the performance difference is likely to be less than you’d think. And, compared to satellite internet, you get a similar or slightly faster speed for a lot less money.

Straight Talk 5G coverage spans more or less the whole country. The largest gaps are in the West and Midwest—think Wyoming, Nebraska, Nevada, and Idaho. Overall, though, the coverage is really good, as we’d expect from a 5G home internet provider.

It’s important to remember that Straight Talk does not operate its own network—it’s what’s known as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). That basically means it rents bandwidth from other providers instead of using its own towers, so its availability is entirely dependent on the availability of those networks.

Straight Talk uses a combination of T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T networks to provide coverage. This means it can cover a lot of ground, but it’ll never be able to provide coverage in areas where these networks aren’t available.

It’s also worth noting that Straight Talk was purchased by Verizon in late 2021. While the service is still available as of February 2024, a quick Google search shows that there isn’t a ton of confidence that this will alway be the case. We can’t really say definitively what the future holds for Straight Talk, but it’s still available right now.

Straight Talk installation couldn’t be much easier. The only piece of equipment involved is the wireless gateway—a modem/router combo that grabs the 5G signal and turns it into a usable Wi-Fi network for your devices.

There are two parts to the installation: Activating your service and setting up the router. It’s a very simple process that takes about 15 or 20 minutes. And, since it’s a self-installation process, there’s no installation fee.

Straight Talk offers a few different options for getting customer support. There’s the usual online stuff: FAQs, support articles, and the like. There’s also live chat, which is our preferred way to get support. Finally, you’ve got phone support, which we appreciate—not every provider offers this these days, but sometimes you just need to talk to a person.

• Support site
• Contact page
• Phone number: 1-877-430-2355

T-Mobile has been one of our favorite 5G home internet providers for a while now, thanks to its combination of fast speeds, affordable prices, and wide availability. Compared to Straight Talk, T-Mobile advertises faster speeds, but these are theoretical—the actual speeds in your area might be more similar than you’d think.

Apart from that, the two services are nearly identical. However, T-Mobile is only a great deal if you’re a T-Mobile customer. Therefore, our recommendation is for T-Mobile customers to go with T-Mobile Home Internet, and customers with other providers to go for Straight Talk.

It’s a similar story here: Verizon theoretically offers faster speeds, but in reality, most customers will see speeds closer to what Straight Talk offers. The rest of the service is basically identical—similar price, unlimited data, easy setup, and so on. Ultimately, our recommendation is the same: Verizon customers should stick with Verizon 5G Home Internet, while customers of other providers would be better off with Straight Talk.

Compared to the major satellite providers (HughesNet, Viasat, and Starlink), Straight Talk Home Internet is a real bargain. Straight Talk maximum speeds are comparable to most of the satellite providers, but you’ll pay a lot less for Straight Talk.

The other main areas you’ll really notice a difference between Straight Talk and satellite are data caps and latency. Both HughesNet and Viasat have limits on high-speed data, and once those limits are reached, your connection is slowed to a crawl for the rest of the month. You can increase those limits (to a point), but the service becomes very expensive when you do.

Latency is the amount of time it takes for data to travel from your device to its destination and back. High latency can result in delays between input and output, and is especially rough for online gamers. It’s also a common issue for satellite internet, given the long distances signals need to travel through the air. Straight Talk (and other 5G home internet services) will have much lower latency than most satellite providers simply due to the underlying technology.

Straight Talk Home Internet, like most of the other 5G home internet services, is a great deal. It’s built on top of the T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon networks, so you get excellent coverage. Speeds are good enough, though they won’t blow away fiber fans. And you get truly unlimited data—all for a really low price.

The main alternatives to Straight Talk Home Internet, especially for rural customers, are other 5G home internet services and satellite internet. Straight Talk is pretty similar to other 5G services, such as Verizon or AT&T Internet Air, but it comes with the benefit of not needing a qualifying cell plan to get the lowest price. Compared to satellite, we think Straight Talk is a no-brainer—if you have both options available, you’ll get comparable performance for a much lower price.

At SatelliteInternet.com, we base our analyses on thorough research, including customer interviews, first-hand testing, results from our speed test tool, and proprietary internet provider data on speeds and pricing. We also dive deep to get all the details on plans, fees, and future developments. We then bring this info together in one place so you can find it easily. Finally, we use our satellite internet industry expertise to help you make the best decisions you can for your household. As always, thanks for reading!

Yes! Straight Talk offers a 5G home internet service with speeds up to 100Mbps and unlimited data for $45.00 per month. There’s also a $5.00 per month discount available for automatically renewing your service each month, making it a real steal at $40.00.

Straight Talk uses a combination of Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T networks. This enables the provider to offer coverage across nearly all of the U.S.

Most 5G home internet plans advertise max speeds between 100Mbps and 250Mbps. However, the exact speeds you’ll see at your home can vary a ton depending on the strength of the network and the number of other users in your area. For that reason, it’s hard to pin down a real-world speed range for most plans.