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MMS and Data Working on Straight Talk After iOS 7.0.3 Update – TFW Carrier Update

By 40 Comments

tfwI just updated my iPhone 4s to iOS 7.0.3 and was a little worried about losing data or picture messaging. I brought my out of contract iPhone from AT&T to Straight Talk less than two weeks ago and I didn’t want to go through setting mms again using the SIM swap method. I’m glad to report that everything seems to be A-ok. Both mms and data are working as they should after the upgrade.

After rebooting, I was given an option to update the phone’s “carrier settings”. Upon doing so, my status bar changed from “HOME” to “TFW”. Also “Network” and “Carrier” now read “TFW” instead of “AT&T” (it’s great not to see the AT&T name on my phone anymore). For those of you who might be wondering what TFW means, it stands for TracFone Wireless. Tracfone offers services under various brands including Straight Talk, NET10 Wireless and Simple Mobile.

I’m curious to know if somebody has any problems to report after the 7.0.3/carrier update? Please leave me a comment if you are experiencing any issues.

Troubleshooting:

Some people with the old Straight Talk SIM card (the one using att.mvno APN settings) are reporting they’ve lost mms and data after the TFW carrier update. In the other hand, people with the new Straight Talk SIM (using tfdata APN settings) are reporting both mms and data work without doing anything else. This means NO MORE SIM SWAPS required with the new carrier update for people with the new Straight Talk SIM card. Great news!

If you lost data and/or mms after the carrier update, this is what you’ll need to do:

1. Double check you are on iOS 7.0.3 and carrier update TFW 15.6.
2. Call Straight Talk customer service at 1-800-299-7784 from a second phone line (you’ll need to reboot your phone during the process).
3. Let them know you are having technical problems and that your SIM needs to be provisioned for the new tfdata settings. Straight Talk will provision your account to accept the new carrier settings. MMS and data should start working again after this (if the customer service representative doesn’t seem to know what you are talking about, ask to be transferred to a more technical department).

If you don’t feel like calling customer service, here are two other options:

– For $6.99 you can order a new AT&T SIM from Straight Talk or Walmart, these will use the new tfdata APN. You can then activate the new SIM online or by phone.
or
– SIM swap and change back to the old att.mvno APN settings.

I recommend either calling Straight Talk or getting the new SIM. It looks like they have finally fixed the bug that caused data and MMS not to work with Straight Talk iPhones and these two options offer a permanent solution.

Comments

  1. I am using an iphone 4 on straight talk data and mms worked fine before I changed to galaxy s4 now I have gone back to iphone 4 and my mms is working but data is super slow it’s says tfw 3G in corner but takes for ever this is a new SIM card and it says it’s the tfdata I have the apn through the unlock it. Can anyone help me fix this?

    Reply

  3. I’m with straightalk I have TFW 16.0 version 7.1.2 & my internet works but I can’t download anything I can’t update none of my apps unless on wifi , it was working fine when i first got it hooked up with straightalk it’s AT&T iPhone 4

    Reply

  4. Newdirt, if you are still reading this thread – do you know what is up with the iPhone 4S models no longer able to use 4G HSPA+ services? What if I don’t care about LTE? I ask because the HSPA is fine for my wife and gave her almost 3-7Mbps downstream but since I upgraded her iOS recently from iOS 6 something – to the latest iOS, it has choked and seems throttled hardcore. There’s no way she’s used 2-3GB of data yet – she might use maybe 1-1.5GB but I doubt that much plus she’s only halfway through her billing cycle. This happened immediately after the iOS upgrade. It is likely she is provisioned with their latest carrier update but I can check. I have the darn T-Mobile which used to work decently for me but we recently moved temporarily and I can’t use T-Mobile if I wanted to. It’s 3G data is decent when I get it but my signal strength is really poor in the area I am in and therefore am about to use their new ATT SIM.

    Your thoughts on this new 3G not 4G and the removal of those options in iOS settings? Your thoughts on the poor throttling of data speeds down to maybe 500Kbps now instead of 1Mb or more? This is messed up Newdirt! Any response is appreciated, hopefully I will get an emailed notification and will reply as needed. Thank you!

    Reply

  5. My phonr use to say tfw 3g at the top left corner and now it just says tfw and i get no internet connection

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  6. Hello!
    I just recently bought a 32 GB iPhone 5s straight from Apple because the 32gig is not available directly from straight talk. I also purchased the AT&T compatible SIM card from the straight talk website. After transferring my straight talk service from my previous Samsung android to my new iPhone, I was not able to use mobile data until I installed the tfdata profile. Everything, including MMS and safari and all my apps are working fine. But I read somewhere that I would have to do a SIM swap to get MMS and mobile data to work. Does this mean that I no longer have to do a SIM swap and change MMS proxy values and whatnot? (Also, upper left corner displays TFW now. Is that what is supposed to be displayed?) Thanks for the help!!

    Reply

    • Hi Jonella,

      You are good to go! No need for SIM swap any more (SIM swap had to be done in the past to get MMS working, but that was corrected by Straight Talk last year). TFW stands for Tracfone Wireless, which owns Straight Talk, so this means you are now on Straight Talk. Enjoy your new phone!

      Reply

  7. I just signed up for ST yesterday and updated my iPhone 4s today, it says TFW but it isn’t 4g anymore it’s 3G and my data is a bit slower. What should I do?

    Reply

    • Unfortunatley at the moment, there’s nothing you can do. The 3G indicator was introduced in the TFW 15.7. update.

      Reply

  8. I recently bought an iPhone 4S and put my straight talk service in it. I bought a kit from straight talk with different SIM cards in it and my phone said AT&T 4G at the top now it says TFW 3G and won’t let me download a free game for my son. A message pops up and says I have to have internet to do so. How do I fix this and go back to 4G? Thank you in advance

    Reply

  9. I have iphone 4s and i had straight talk for few years now, but since its showing tfw , its only running 3g, very slow, plus worse, i do not have any signal AT ALL at home, nobody can reach me at home, and i dont live that far away…. I really want to switch, if this thing dont go back to normal, the way it use to be, i dont care about mms, i got whatsapp and i can send as many pictures as i want there, but i do need signal here at home if something happens, how do i reach anyone!!!!!

    Reply

  10. I have a tough one for you I have a iPhone 4 all updated but the problem is my microphone doesn’t work on speaker phone or on FaceTime but works great on Skype even after a new motherboard new mic new everything still don’t work help me

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  11. I have an iPhone 4S throw straight talk and my phone is running as downloading so so so darn slow it look my phone about 1 min or so just to open google throw siria and it has never been like this before. I have tried to soft reset my phone and turning it off and letting stay off for a few mom and turning it back on. What can I do to make it run fast again I do have full singal and my tfw and 3G in don’t understand can someone help me please!

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  12. I have iphone 4 s on straighttalk service. I am on IOS 7.0.4, on usual data netwok recently did the update carrier settings to trac fone. I lost mms and have used the sim swap method to try and get picture messaging to work. Now I have pictures will go out but not come into the phone. I can send pictures and receive pictures if using the iphone on the imessage but not if someone who is not on an iphone as the picture does not come through. Any help is appreciated. thanks

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  13. My iPhone 4S only shows TFW 4g when the 4g disappears I have no signal. Shouldn’t it swap to 3G instead. My old straight talk phone had great signal but since I’ve activated the AT&T iPhone I’m not talking where I was before.

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  14. Hi I’m trying really hard to get my apn settings so I can use my internet and nothing I do is working please help me

    Reply

    • Hi Sabrina. Are you on iOS 7.0.3 and carrier update TFW 15.6? If you have an older Straight Talk SIM, you need to call Straight Talk at 1-800-299-7784. They need to provision your account to accept the new carrier settings. MMS and data should start working again after this. Please follow steps 1-3 from my blog post above for specific instructions.

      Someone commented that things started working again after deleting the unlockit APN profile. Do you have an APN profile installed? If you did not install such a thing, this does not apply to you and you need to call Straight Talk (or purchase a new SIM).

      Reply

  15. Thanks again, my only concern at this point is that somehow my wife can’t use her phone for a day or something like that – you know, happy wife = happy life 🙂

    I got the email(s) from AT&T stating that I qualified for unlock, but that there was still a process that I would have to wait 48 hours to 5 business days and that they would email me the status of the request at that time.

    I think I’ll do the activation/port request on a Friday night after dinner. That way I can minimize the possibility of my better half being without a phone during the work week.

    Reply

    • I was in your same position and I was also concerned about being without service for too long. So I planned on switching my phone first and then my wife’s. When I started the activation process, I still had AT&T service. After I noticed I had no service, that’s when I inserted the Straight Talk SIM. So I was actually never without phone service (except while switching SIMs). At least that’s how it worked out for me. You might want to do your phone first to see how it goes, then your wife’s. Doing the activation on Friday after dinner sounds like a good plan to me.

      Also, I got some good news. I received my final bill from AT&T yesterday and it was prorated. I was only charged for the part of the month I used. I was surprised because all the info I’ve read online said the opposite. Maybe I was lucky, who knows.

      Reply

  16. You can pay for the plans online with a credit card when you do the activation. I would do this a few days before your billing cycle ends, just to be on the safe side. Do not call to cancel your AT&T service before starting the Straight Talk activation process. Once you port your number, your AT&T account will be canceled automatically. Make sure to select “Activate my Straight Talk Service with a number from another company” (and have your AT&T account number ready).

    When your AT&T service has been disabled (you’ll know when this happens because you’ll have no service), you can then insert your new Straight Talk SIM. Surprisingly, for me this only took about 30 minutes, though the instructions say activation can take up to 48 hours. I suggest you do this at a time of day when you don’t use your phone very much. I did this late at night thinking it would take hours, luckily for me, it was pretty quick. Getting the unlock approval from AT&T was supper quick for me as well. It did tell me it could take up to 5 days, but I received the approval a few minutes after getting the initial email. Maybe you already got your approval already?

    Reply

  17. Fantastic, thanks for the information. I just ordered two micro SIMS from Straight Talk (for me and my wife’s 4s’s) and put in the online unlock requests with AT&T. The email I got from them said it would take maybe 5 days to process the unlock. That said, my billing cycle with AT&T is not up for 26 more days, so I’ll have time to sit on those SIMS when they get here on Monday or Tuesday.

    When do you recommend I purchase the plans for the two phones and put in the number port requests? 25 days from now? Or is that too risky, maybe a few days earlier and just consider anything unused on my AT&T plan a sunk cost?

    Reply

  18. I’m thinking about switching to Straight Talk as my contract with AT&T just ended. I’m not that keen on doing the sim-swap thing. Am I reading it correctly that with iOS 7.0.3, the sim-swap is no longer needed, as long as a new micro-sim (iPhone 4s) is purchased from straight talk’s website?

    Reply

    • That’s right. SIM-swap is no longer needed on iOS 7.0.3 with the new Straight Talk SIMs. I have the new SIM and after the update both data and mms were working without doing the sim-swap trick or without installing any APN profiles (these profiles were available from straight talk or unlockit.co.nz).

      To confirm this, a few days after the update, I sim-swapped again to check my phone’s settings (I had just switched two weeks prior to the update and had purchased the T-Mobile Sim). Upon doing this I saw that the correct Straight Talk apn settings were being pushed to my phone. Before the update you could see the AT&T settings and you had to change them in order for data and mms to work.

      I suggest you give Straight Talk a try and if you don’t like it you can always leave, as these are no contract plans. You should request AT&T to unlock your iPhone in case you want to switch carriers later. It’s very easy to do, you can do it here: https://www.att.com/deviceunlock/client/en_US/termsAndCondition.

      I’ve been on Straight Talk for a month and so far I don’t have any complaints. I’m paying less than half of what I was paying with AT&T and I’m getting the same service. Wait until the end of your billing cycle to switch as your final bill is not pro-rated and you’ll end up paying the full month anyway.

      Reply

  19. I just had a problem where my data stopped working this morning. So what I did was remove the Unlockit APN settings and now my data AND MMS works fine. Been testing it to myself and other contacts. They’ve received my MMS photos. I was never able to do this before. And now, I feel my data speed is a bit faster. I’m on an iPhone 4 on iOS 7.0.3.

    Reply

  20. Since I’ve updated my phone my internet has been moving very slow
    Nothing downloads as fast and my service goes I. And out
    It sucks

    Reply

    • Does this happen when you’re using Safari? I’ve read about a possible fix. Apparently you have to clean/delete out the favorites folder in Safari. It looks like updating somehow duplicates favorites entries. Delete by connecting your phone to the computer synced to iCloud (deleting from your iPhone would be to slow). I can’t confirm this works but some people are reporting it does. Hope this helps.

      Reply

  21. Hi Bernita. You need to call Straight Talk at 1-800-299-7784. They need to provision your account to accept the new carrier settings. MMS and data should start working again after this. Please follow steps 1-3 from my original post for more details. Let me know if you were able to get data working again or if you have any more questions.

    Reply

  22. After the 7.0.3 update I can no longer use my data unless I’m near wifi. What can I do?
    I have iPhone 4 and I’m with straight talk.

    Reply

  23. I didn’t have any Data access on my 4S after the latest updates. Followed the lead of calling the 800 number. The Service Tech I ended up with was very cordial, went through the process patiently with me, and, after 47 minutes – I have all my Data items back available. Thanks for the thread and thanks to the nice ST Tech that helped!!!!

    Reply

  24. I have an iphone 4s that I converted to straight talk a year or so ago. My phone was stolen, now it has an AT &T sim card in it and they updated it to 7.0.3, Can someone pretty please tell me how to get this thing back to straight talk services with everything working. I really have tried to research and figure it out on my own. HELP!

    Reply

    • Hi Brenda. Sorry for the late reply. It should be very easy to switch back to Straight Talk. You just need to order a new Straight Talk SIM at http://straighttalkbyop.com/shop.php (order an AT&T compatible SIM if you have an AT&T iPhone). Once you get the SIM, you need to reactivate your service. If you want to keep your old number, select “Reactivate my service with an existing or new number”. Hope this helps.

      Reply

  25. I recently experienced losing Data on my iPhone 4S after 7.0.3 update. I have an original 3 year old SIM that I had cut down to a micro SIM. I simply deleted the Unlockit AT&T MVNO APN settings and now my data is working.

    Reply

    • It seems to me that this has more to do with your phone than with the carrier update. Is your iPhone too full? If it is, try freeing up some space by either transferring photos/videos to your computer or deleting apps/music that you are not using anymore. I’ve also heard that deleting old text messages help. You can also try reseting your phone (hold the Home button down while simultaneously pressing the Power button. Keep pressing until the Apple logo appears). Hope this helps.

      Reply

  27. I am! Data and MMS isn’t working for me after the update 🙁 I reset all network settings, rebooted the phone and nothing..
    I had to reinstall the APN from Unlockitz.

    Reply

    • Hi MissGbf. Are data and mms working again after reinstalling the Unlockit APN? If not, you need to call Straight Talk so they can provision your account to accept the new carrier settings.

      Reply

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