There have been various ways of getting iPhones onto AT&T's prepaid
GoPhone plans pretty much since the beginning, but for some inexplicable reason (hint: contracts are lucrative), the carrier is closing the door on prepaid in concert with the release of
OS 3.0 this week. To be clear, we have absolutely no idea how AT&T would reliably detect whether you're running 3.0 on your iPhone -- unless Apple were to report it to AT&T using data culled from iTunes, and we somehow doubt it's happening that way -- so in all likelihood, they're just assuming most folks will move to 3.0 within the next few weeks and are using the release as a convenient line in the sand. New iPhone 3G and 3G S owners will have a hard time signing up for GoPhone altogether, and legacy customers are being told that the upgrade "may impact the data service" unless they move to postpaid. Actually, it's even more stratified than that: only original iPhones are being allowed to stay on Pick Your Plan with the unlimited data add-on, while 3Gs have to move. To be fair, this has been the policy all along -- 2G on Pick Your Plan, 3G not eligible -- and it seems they're just now deciding to lay down the law and bring everyone into compliance, but that doesn't mean we have to like it.
[Thanks, Kris]
posted Jun 15th 2009 8:36PM
Hmm so does this mean if I go to an AT&T retail store and get a pre-paid sim card they won't let me get it if I tell them I have an iPhone?
iPhone 2G/3G/3GS are great phones, but dealing with AT&T and their crappy coverage and retarded policies will forever keep me from getting them.
Your an idiot, and have no clue what your talking about, AT&T has awsome network coverage and the data speed is about twice as fast asd verizons. So stop leaving stupid coments because u make yourself sound ignorent.
AT&T can tell whatever phone u are using on their network. I'm not sure of the specifics but this wasn't always true. It used to be customer info for phone type was only thE last imei changed (new phone, upgrade, customer called it in) but now (maybe it's only 3g) whenever u swap phones it switches in their system. That explains customer being on a mediamax plan with the iPhone would receive the message "you're not an iPhone 3G data plan, blah blah blah". It's true for most phones (I swapped my sim with my old Sony Ericsson z500a and logged into my account and showed up as my device. Then I put my iPhone sim card back and a little while later it switched when I logged back into my accout. Give it a try
I don't know when it started but IM gonna have trouble keeping my plan now
So that means I cannot use iPhone 3GS on regular MediaNet plan at all? But can I use my current iPhone 3G SIM card on unlocked phones and use the data plan?
Well, AT&T know I have an iPhone 3g because I used to get the texts saying I didn't have the right plan. I called AT&T some time last year and told them I got a new phone and to activate my mms please. I had my sim in the samsung eternity a couple days before I called and they removed the iPhone data plan and anything iPhone related (mms opt out, Vis vmail). I got the $15 mediamax and started receiving the "i need the iPhone data plan" text about December and they suddenly stopped about 3 months ago.
When I updated to 3.0 GM my iPhone I couldn't connect to the Internet, the iPhone said I wasn't subscribed to a data plan. I'm thinking 'oh, shit' no more cheap Internet. When I updated the carrier setting (ATT.ipcc file) to AT&T 5.0 it started working again
Is there any way to get an iPhone 3G on PAYG now? I'd love to get one, but I really would like to avoid a contract if possible. It seems that unlimited data is now unavailable on PAYG, but I could be wrong?
there is no longer an unlimited pay as you go data plan, it's only 100mb
This post is a little misleading. When the 3G iPhone launched last year, a GoPhone option was not officially offered. That was with the first gen iPhone's only.
Missed the last sentence at the end.... ha
I hope they don't add the data plan back to my postpaid line. I did what Sean michaels did except I skipped the data plan all together since I have no use for it. Can't believe I paid $30/month for that crap.
So stupid - why should they be able to dictate what phone you are using?
Another terrible legacy of the US carrier market. I don't understand why this practice isn't legislated against.
Thankfully not an issue in other parts of the world (that I am aware of .. ?)
Legally, I dont see how AT&T can do this at all. I am a 2g Pick your plan/GoPhone Customer for about 2 years. Keep in mind, I did not sign any contract or terms of acceptance with AT&T. Finally got an AT&T idiot to delete my Data plan completely (EDGE isnt worth 10 cents a month), and been using Wi-Fi only for data.
So, Im paying $39/mo for my iPhone and probably wont ever upgrade to 3.0 because my phone will probably display the dreaded "You iPhone is Not Activated" message JUST like Apples big uodate to 2.0 last year at this time. I had no voice service for 2 days!
Actually, I'm betting that ATT is working to be able to tell what version of firmware you have so they can determine when mms should be en/disabled.
Right now they have active sweeps to determine which phone you have and disable wap push if they see you have an iphone.
So has anyone on GoPhone updated yet? If so, what really happens?
Anyone notice that ATT is not the only one trying to do this. T-mobile just recently announced that G1 and Mytouch will have forced data plans too. Are they getting together to gang up on consumers, or what? As of July 1 you will not be able to buy a smartphone without data. For the life of the phone !!! WTF?