Straight Talk has confirmed on its Facebook page that it will offer a SIM-only option for the first time along with its sister brand in Net10 within the next few days. The dedicated page for the offering is now live and features options for regular full-size SIMs as well as the increasingly popular microSIMs used in newer smartphones, including the iPhone. Read more for all the key details and the full breakdown of the service.

The offering also marks a shift for Tracfone as the service provider typically bundles service with its SIM capable phones while binding them together with questionable legalese and locks that would prevent usage on unlocked phones. The new offering may in fact be a response to the increasing popularity of purchasing Straight Talk Nokia smartphones with unlocked SIM cards that would work on unlocked or AT&T branded phones. The new service is also similar to the SIM-only option offered by competitor Simple Mobile which works exclusively on T-Mobile’s network and  has the advantage of also being compatible with both networks, unlike the aforementioned Simple Mobile.

The terms also indicate that Tracfone is taking advantage of the new UMTS roaming agreement signed between AT&T and T-Mobile in the wake of the blocked AT&T/T-Mobile purchase and merger to offer the new service option. Minor caveats to this option begin with the exclusion of Tracfone-branded hardware, BlackBerry and branded SafeLink, NET10 or Straight Talk phones. The BlackBerry exclusion makes sense as Tracfone does not hold a license for BlackBerry services and would need to either negotiate directly with RIM or sublicense via carrier partners for access to BlackBerry service.

With the forthcoming launch of SIM-only service on Tracfone, the provider may at last be taking steps to end its legally nebulous practice of locking SIM cards to hardware with equally questionable legalese while offering a solid alternative to contracts with the potential bonus of 3G roaming.

As the service requires the purchase of the $45 unlimited service plan and a credit/debit card, Straight Talk and Net10 are clearly targeting enthusiasts and current SIM swap users that are looking to keep using unlocked smartphones without the repercussions normally associated with such usage, which include account termination for using the SIM in an unauthorized device.

Now that Tracfone is offering SIM only service, this will undoubtedly force carriers to compete with their own prepaid services, though it remains to be seen whether they will respond in kind. A request for comment on the extent of AT&T and T-Mobile compatibility has also been sent to Tracfone’s PR company and the post will be updated with any additional confirmation received. The service will launch next Tuesday for both Straight Talk and Net10 at the prices listed in the above linked images while the support pages list manual data/MMS settings for each network.

Straight Talk SIM Page

T-Mobile is preparing a harsh wave of new data roaming limitations, which will curtail data usage on roaming networks.

The carrier has, for years, touted transparent roaming terms; customers were educated to treat domestic data and voice roaming as same-as-home network functionality, albeit with the restrictions that came with other GSM networks. Namely, other networks would function at 2G, GSM/EDGE speeds. AT&T, the largest GSM carrier in the country, is compatible with T-Mobile, but their 3G UMTS/HSPA network runs on an incompatible frequency.

While AT&T and T-Mobile have finally negotiated roaming agreements that include 3G devices, so those on pentaband phones (like select Nokia devices) would finally enjoy 3G roaming, that’s all about to end. T-Mobile has stated in internal memos that domestic roaming could be curtailed to as little as 5 MB on April 5. One situation remains unclear, which is for customers that have grandfathered unlimited data plans. Internal memos affirmed that the change affects only handset users, not mobile broadband card/hotspot holders.

Unlike Sprint, which has a roaming rate for additional data over its roaming data cap (typically 300 MB, lower on some plans), T-Mobile is advising employees that customers will simply lose data access. Data will be barred on roaming after exceeding the cap, until the following billing cycle. AT&T and Verizon treat most roaming as on-network coverage, with no penalties for considerable usage.

Customers will be notified via free SMS text messages when they hit 80% and 100% levels of their plans caps. Notifications of the change will be mailed out in customer’s bills starting tomorrow.

This change comes as T-Mobile tries to cut costs, and shore up cash for an eventual deployment of LTE. Many will view this as an ETF Out, as we do here at PhoneNews.com. However, T-Mobile probably will not chime in on if they will waive Early Termination Fees for this material change to customers until late March or early April. Customers have 30 days from when a material change to their takes effect, to request that their service be cancelled entirely.

Some other carriers have offered creative language as to what they consider to be material changes, we’ll continue to keep the carriers honest on what actually is a material change. You can help by exercising your right to terminate service, ETF-free, if you object to changes like these.

It’s been a busy week for T-Mobile. After refusing to comment to PhoneNews.com on T-Mobile testing 1900 MHz UMTS service in select markets, a direct effort to support unlocked iPhones, the carrier has made more depressing internal moves.

It appears that the carrier has aborted plans to offer 3G on 1900 MHz, as the carrier earlier this month began instructing customer service to suggest iPhone users on the network upgrade to a 4G Android smartphone, compatible with their network frequencies. T-Mobile offered customer support representatives a series of talking points on why iPhone is limited to 2G, or EDGE speeds on the T-Mobile network.

While it is possible that these are simply two different hands of a company not talking to one another, the timeline does indicate that T-Mobile wants iPhone off its network, rather than embrace the 1900 MHz band for UMTS. With no possibility of an AT&T merger, the carrier has to decide to use 1900 MHz for UMTS, or save it for LTE.

The carrier also has to decide when to wind down its GSM/EDGE services, which would leave iPhone customers in the dark. Other handsets that are GSM-only could be upgraded for free with UMTS handsets at marginal cost to T-Mobile. AT&T had to undergo the same effort when it wound down its TDMA and AMPS networks, and will likely have to do the same with GSM in order to re-use the spectrum.

Following criticism from many, T-Mobile does now appear to be pulling at least a temporary about-face with the public. The carrier has published memos internally, confirmed by PhoneNews.com, that they will begin to provide basic technical support for iPhone on the T-Mobile network.

Support will be limited to basic compatibility configuration, the T-Mobile APN (needed to enable data services), as well as T-Mobile’s email and MMS gateways.

In addition, T-Mobile will also provide support for iPhone usage and navigation, but only at a basic level. Services like the App Store and iTunes or iPod will not be supported, T-Mobile representatives are directed to tell customers to contact Apple for further technical support.

T-Mobile is the only of the major four carriers to not carry an iPhone currently. This partially stemmed from AT&T’s intention to purchase/merge with T-Mobile, and T-Mobile refusing to pay Apple’s higher device subsidies. T-Mobile executives have commented that the next iPhone will support T-Mobile’s network, prompting T-Mobile public relations to perform damage control, having announced an Apple product prior to Apple confirming it.

T-Mobile at CES is a company newly transformed after the fallout and eventual termination of the unpopular AT&T purchase and merger. Starting with a new Android smartphone, the carrier has announced a new high-end smartphone in the Samsung Blaze which features HSPA+ 42 Mbps support, Snapdragon S3 dual-core processor at 1.5 GHz, and a Super AMOLED screen at 4.5 inches, with more details forthcoming.

In related news, T-Mobile’s Bobsled Facebook-based VOIP service is now making the transition to smartphones with new apps for Android and iOS via the new Bobsled Calling service, which allows free outgoing calls and text messages via internet connections in the US and Puerto Rico with group messaging and cloud sync.

Finally, T-Mobile has announced a further expansion of its 42Mbps HSPA+ overlay, with Beaumont, Longview, Midland, and Tyler, Texas; Michigan City, Indiana.; Modesto and Stockton, Calif.; Mount Vernon, Wash.; Naples and Punta Gorda, Fla.; Sandusky, Ohio; and Shreveport, La. to markets that feature HSPA+ at 42Mbps and bringing total 42Mbps coverage to 175 markets.

T-Mobile also added nine markets that feature HSPA+ at 21Mbps, bringing the total to 217 markets at 200 million people and noted that it would receive AWS mobile spectrum in 128 markets and in 12 of the top 20 markets in the country, pending regulatory approval. Going forward, T-Mobile will also refocus marketing on the lower cost of its family-oriented postpaid plans compared to the rest of the industry.

Wirefly today took the apparently-accidental step of offering up pre-orders for the Lumia 710, Nokia’s first American Windows Phone. The phone will launch on T-Mobile.

CES is shaping up to be Nokia’s re-debut with their line of Windows Phones all set to be announced at CES. As many as three Lumia variants may be seen at the show, the Lumia 710 for T-Mobile is all but confirmed. However, there will likely be at least one LTE variant announced, the Lumia 800 with LTE for AT&T, and possibly the announcement of Lumia 800 CDMA units for Verizon Wireless and other CDMA carriers, such as Sprint.

The situation surrounding the Lumia 800 for AT&T is much clearer than the 800′s CDMA counterparts. The Lumia 710 has not been rumored to be making the jump to CDMA. Verizon Wireless may be willing to accept a CDMA only variant as a temporary measure to launch the device. The Lumia 800 with LTE does not have CDMA, putting Nokia in a bind; it apparently has decided to forgo an LTE-with-CDMA version in lieu of launching what it has already developed, and later launching a device with both on Verizon.

It’s not clear though why Verizon would accept such a device. It would be taking a non-4G version of the same 4G phone that AT&T will carry. Sales would also be impacted; tech-savvy would avoid the phone like the plague. Even in non-4G markets, Verizon’s throttling policies dictate that to avoid throttling, you have to own an LTE-enabled phone. This move was made to ensure that iPhone, which lacks LTE, would be throttled. Here however, it may only serve to quash sales.

The Lumia 710 may be targeting the iPhone 4 in terms of customer base, but it may wind up competing against the iPhone 3GS. Wirefly is already selling the phone for free with a new two-year contract.

PhoneNews.com will be kicking off CES 2011 coverage, live from Las Vegas, later this week.

Noted Windows pundit Paul Thurrott has confirmed a few key details related to US Windows Phone launches planned for the coming year which center on AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Three LTE-based Windows Phone handsets–the Nokia ACE, HTC Radiant, and Samsung Mendel–will ship on AT&T Wireless before the middle of 2012. The ACE is due March 18, 2012. What’s unclear is whether these LTE based devices will be accompanied by a software update of some kind. You may recall that the rumored “Tango” release, supposedly due in early 2012, is about low-end phones. So it’s unclear how that jives with LTE, which is obviously a high-end feature. This explains my confusion over the supposed Windows Phone roadmap leak yesterday.

Also, the Nokia Lumia 710 will ship on Verizon Wireless in April 2012. This is not an LTE device, and it’s not clear when/if we’ll see an LTE Windows Phone on Verizon. The Lumia 710 is codenamed “Sword” and will be available in April 2012. (The T-Mobile version of the Lumia 710 will be available for purchase on January 11, 2012, giving the company three months of exclusivity before the device hits Verizon.

While the above seems to correlate with leaked roadmaps, the specific nature of the information points to heavy ongoing internal testing of Nokia Windows Phone devices on US carriers before their respective launches, with T-Mobile USA being the first to launch next month.

With Verizon launching a non-LTE version of the Lumia 710 despite public statements expressing a desire for such a device, the carrier may be extending an olive branch to the Finnish manufacturer after its previous relationship with the manufacturer dissolved into nothing more than Korean ODM rebrands that had very little to do with Nokia in terms of hardware.

The same could be said of AT&T with the Ace and the other planned LTE equipped phones after it passed on Nokia’s last carrier focused smartphone in the Nokia X7, which was meant to be an exclusive phone for AT&T running Symbian^3 and makes sense as AT&T was chosen by Microsoft to promote Windows Phone.

We were all set to close out the lights on PhoneNews.com to celebrate Christmas, but we got one piece of information that we had to push out to readers.

Many in the mobile media had been covering that T-Mobile customers had suddenly noticed UMTS/HSPA receptivity on the unlocked iPhone models. This appears to be coming from the 1900 MHz signal, indicating that T-Mobile has begun, in the wake of the failed merger with AT&T, to begin rolling out 3G coverage for AT&T-banded devices.

Unfortunately, T-Mobile formally declined to comment to PhoneNews.com after we asked what the official status of this situation is. The carrier’s media relations team was unaware of the situation until we brought it to their attention, indicating that this offering was not intentional on T-Mobile’s part.

In fact, this may have been little more than a pilot program, we have only confirmed signal receptivity in one single market (Northern CA and Reno, NV, which is a single market by T-Mobile territories).

By using 1900 MHz for UMTS/HSPA, the carrier is using bandwidth that previously had to remain open for GSM/EDGE network traffic. Much as AT&T and Verizon had to move customers off older network standards, T-Mobile may see fit to begin pushing customers away from GSM, and toward a UMTS-only network.

As part of T-Mobile’s termination agreement with AT&T regarding their merger, the two agreed to a network-wide UMTS roaming agreement. These kinds of agreements were long sought after by consumer groups, and smaller carriers alike, noting that the carriers could not find any reasons in principle to not have such pacts.

Armed with a UMTS roaming agreement with AT&T, T-Mobile simply does not need to continue operating a GSM network. While millions of customers still have GSM devices, the per-device cost for a basic UMTS feature phone is low enough now that a trade-off would be to T-Mobile’s advantage; start welcoming iPhone customers immediately by reducing GSM spectrum immediately.

T-Mobile is now offering unlimited plans at the $50/month price-point, including data. At those rates, T-Mobile could argue that customers purchasing an unlocked iPhone would save money over AT&T, even factoring in the nearly $400 device subsidy that AT&T pays for each iPhone customer.

After all, there’s nothing stopping T-Mobile from offering bill credits and subsidies on service in lieu of a contract phone purchase…

Multiple news sources and outlets have confirmed within the last few minutes that AT&T has abandoned its $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA. The decision to drop the purchase follows months of regulatory action by the FCC and Justice Department to block the merger. The latest actions to be made prior to the decision involved the FCC publishing an internal report on the effects of the merger which spelled out AT&T’s claims and essentially refuted each one after AT&T rescinded its original intent to merge letter filed in May within the last few weeks.

T-Mobile has announced that it will be the exclusive carrier for the Nokia Lumia 710 in the US, making it the first carrier to launch and carry a Nokia Windows Phone Mango smartphone. Pricing for the phone is set at $99.99 before an additional $50 mail-in rebate via prepaid debit card, bringing the total to $49.99 and will launch on January 11th.

The phone is identical to the unlocked version with a 3.7 inch WVGA display, a 1.4 GHz processor with a dedicated graphics processor, 5.0 megapixel camera with 720p video capture and 8GB of internal storage with no expansion slot.

Amazon is selling the Exhibit Ii 4G by Samsung for $195 shipped, without contract.

The Exhibit II 4G is an offshoot of the first-generation Galaxy S lineage, designed for T-Mobile prepaid. It is the second T-Mobile Prepaid smartphone that supports HSPA+ “4G”.

At $195, the phone is about $100 off of its standard, suggested retail price. The phone can be activated on T-Mobile’s new $30 data-only prepaid plan, which offers 100 minutes of voice and unlimited data, with the first two gigabytes each month performing at “4G speeds”, after being throttled to between 50 and 100kbps for the remainder of the month.

Samsung Exhibit II 4G Prepaid Android Phone (T-Mobile)