Just an update, I called, ATT, it appears to be from VA to ME. No ETA on when it will be fixed. If I were you, I would call up ATT and complain, be nice, but be fustrated. I recieved a $25 credit.

I'm in CT, phone says I have Edge connection, but does not load. Very fustrating.

I have a PS3 and a XBOX360, so I will be keeping most of the swag if I win. Being that I am a Mac User, the PC games would be going to my brother who is a die hard PC gamer.

I hope I win!

I was a fan of recess. Does that count as a class? Well more of a period during the school day, but then high school came around and took it away.

Yea, mine bricked. Doing a software restore right now. Origionally when I tried doing the software update, iTunes kicked out an error and said I had to do a software restore. Ehh, thats what I get for moding my phone.

Ok, for starters when you establish service with any provider your first bill is always going to be higher. With AT&T the reason being is that it is a combination of the following:

- Your monthly voice plan, so ie: $39.99 (depends on how many min. you signed up for)
- Any additional features ($20 for iPhone)
- Your activation fee of $36
- You will also be pro rated for your first months bill. Basically they take your monthly service, plus your features, add them up and devide them by the amount of days in the month. After that, they carge you that per day cost until the first day of the assigned bill cycle.
- Lastly you will also be charged your govt. fees and wireless taxes.

After all is said and done, that is going to be your first bill. On average, an activation on a new plan of $39.99 with the iPhone + data plan will cost the owner any where between $110 - $160. After that you are looking your plan + features + taxes, taxes are going to average about 11%.

Now, back to the post above. Regarding the interaction that happened, it appears that when you called up, the rep who you spoke with origionally to port over your number a) did not understand what you wanted to do or b) was after the sale of a new activation. Because lets face it, if the rep. just ported over your old number and replaced the temp one with your previous number, he gets paid nothing. But if he were to sign you up for a new activation on a second line (ie: your ported number) then he would make comission on that sale.

@36

Valid point. Regarding AT&T, I have done this in the past, hence
why I have been out of contract for so long, I have just purchased
the equipment at the retail cost, thus they did not place me into
another agreement. But I do see your point of extending the agreement
with the iPhone purchase. Because that "requires" additional
features/plan/account changes.

But do you happen to have any insight
about prepaid customers purchasing the device? I was thinking of
getting one for my little brother. I dont want him on my account
because I dont trust the fact that he wouldn't use all my min. But he
is very careful with his technologies, thus I would be interested in
the PPD.

@ # 33

I was under the assumption that Apple would be following AT&T's guidelines for upgrade eligibility. I guess that won’t be made clear until the release date. I say this because, hypothetically I just upgraded last month and got a new phone at a discount. Will AT&T hold me to that existing contract because of the discount on the new phone, or will they again allow me to sign up for a new phone?

Secondly, per the video, it appears that they might be running a credit check at the time of purchase of the iPhone. I wonder what they will offer the phone for, for a prepaid customer. Will they even allow them to purchase the device to use on their service?

There has to be a way to avoid the 2-year contract. In the cellular world, the reason why people sign the 2-year is to get a discount on the device. Over the months, the store gets reimbursed for the device; hence the benefit of signing a contract, you get a subsidization. Yes, the device has some cool features, and requires a different rate plan. But, I have no interest in the GPS/Edge data. I have WiFi at school, my place of employment and my home, I don’t think I can justify spending an additional $20 a month on data that I don’t want to use, thus I would not need to change my rate plan. My issue I guess is this:

• If I’m not changing my rate plan, and I want to purchase the equipment at the no contract price, what right does a cellular company have to place me into another 2 year agreement? Apple is selling the device in the stores without the contract (according to the Connecticut West Farms Mall store). You have to register/provision the device through iTunes. If they sell it with no contract, at a retail cost, how can they justify a contract?

• Secondly, how can they deny a customer the right to purchase an item. They have to give an alternative to purchasing the device for customers who are not eligible to sign a new contract. That on its own is going to be a wake up call for many existing Cingular/AT&T customers. Being informed that they can’t get the device because they have not completed enough of their previous contract to sign up again. So if a customer purchases the device at an Apple store and wants to activate it on there existing number that is not eligible for an upgrade, how will they be allowed to use the device (think about corporate users who want this device, but have to keep there number)? Will they have to return it, if they are forced to activate on a new number, hypothetically they do not want a new number?

Lastly, I have called customer service on numerous occasions; they stated that the GSM service that this device will require is going to be slightly different then the normal service. Apparently you cannot just swap your Cingular/AT&T SIM into the device and have it work. Now whether this is true or not, is yet to be determined. Knowing how this technology works, one could generally assume that the SIM’s are swappable on unlocked phones/phones locked to the same network, but according to the customer service rep that I spoke with, you need a special designated Apple SIM card. And the visual voice mail feature does not come with the device; your account has to be provisioned accordingly.

I guess I’m just frustrated. Yes I like Cingular/AT&T for service it works for me. I have been out of contract since 04’ because I don’t like the concept of being tied down by any one. Yes I understand I can break contract for $175, but that is just a hassle. I’m curious as to how AT&T/Apple will handle the flow of existing customers, and how they will help them. Guess only time will tell.

Oh yea, on a last note, I also spoke with a Cingular rep. at one of the corporate locations. He said about an hour and a half before 6:00pm (around 4:30pm) they will be shutting down the store to put up all the Apple collateral then will be re-opening. Just figured the more info. the better, don’t want people confused as to why the stores are closed at 5:00 at night.

Somethings to take into consideration:

Currently for any of the PDA style phones that AT&T is offering, the price that they offer is always with a 2 year agreement and with the signing of a data package to get the rebate. AT&T has there own data plans (PDA Connect Plans - $29.99 and $39.99/Month) They also support Blackberry plans that average about $29.99/month. The Blackberry plans are compleetly seperate to AT&T's plans because of the fact that it keeps Blackberry in the loop and they recieve kickbacks for their plans. I wouldn't doubt that Apple is doing the same thing. For any one using there phone/data, it will require a substantial data plan. Im positive we can expect the data plan to range between the $19.99 for a specific amount of MB, up to $39.99 for unlimited Data possibly incorporating some text messaging with it.