Do I NEED to activate it ?
I'm a current AT&T customer with unlimited text messaging and voice plan. Can I just take the IPhone and install my AT&T SIM card and start using the phone like my current phone ?
Since I'm an AT&T customer and have an AT&T SIM card I don't need to unlock it ?
I don't really listen to music with my phone, I just want the internet feature. Can I still use it with WiFi and the other functions without adding the INTERNET plan ?
I have WiFi at work and at home so I really don't need the AT&T INTERNET plan upgrade. I'm trying to find out if I just use my regular plan (currently includes unlimited SMS) then If can stay as I am and don't have to extend my contract.
Since I'm an AT&T customer and have an AT&T SIM card I don't need to unlock it ?
I don't really listen to music with my phone, I just want the internet feature. Can I still use it with WiFi and the other functions without adding the INTERNET plan ?
I have WiFi at work and at home so I really don't need the AT&T INTERNET plan upgrade. I'm trying to find out if I just use my regular plan (currently includes unlimited SMS) then If can stay as I am and don't have to extend my contract.
Comments
I don't believe there are any legal alternatives.
At present, Apple and AT&T make you purchase a data plan in order to activate an iPhone. Period. Even if you're personally willing to use only Wifi for internet use, and not the cellular network, you've got to pay for the minimum voice+data package which runs about $60/month, and get locked into a two-year obligation as well.
According to some people who post here, since you can choose simply not to buy an iPhone if you don't like this deal, that means you, the consumer, are in complete and total control. The take-it-or-leave-it choice you have here has nothing at all whatsoever with cellular service providers having any sort of nearly monopolistic (perhaps I should say "cartel-like"?) extra bargaining power. The market has provided a plethora of one-year, typically two-year lock-in plans to choose from, because that's apparently what we, the consumers, really, really want.
According to some people who post here, since you can choose simply not to buy an iPhone if you don't like this deal, that means you, the consumer, are in complete and total control. The take-it-or-leave-it choice you have here has nothing at all whatsoever with cellular service providers having any sort of nearly monopolistic (perhaps I should say "cartel-like"?) extra bargaining power. The market has provided a plethora of one-year, typically two-year lock-in plans to choose from, because that's apparently what we, the consumers, really, really want.
You can only legally buy a Tom Clancy novel from a publisher who agrees to work with Tom Clancy, too. I suppose that limits your choices in what you read?
Face it, kid. Your argument is emotional, not logical. Using logic to substantiate it is a reflection on your abilities to debate. Stick to the emotional appeal and leave logic out of it and you'll be OK. Or don't and have your ass handed to you ... logically. Your choice.
Oh, and I do appreciate how you keep bringing this up in so many threads and how you just can't let this go - it confirms my belief that a) you're immature, and b) your debating abilities are crap. I like it when I get confirmation!
Thanks!~
Anyway, thanks for the replies up to now. Anyone know why people pay so much on EBay when they can buy it in the store ? Why do they all keep saying I can use a regular SIM card, just to sell it ?
I'm glad I came here before I bought in on EBay. Over there EVERYBODY I have asked that sells IPhones has told me that I can just add my SIM card and it will work. If I have to activate it anyway, why are people buying the phone for $500 and $600 when they can get it for $399 in the store ?
Although it's very risky, some people will buy these phones with the hope of unlocking them. If successfully unlocked, then you would be able to add your own SIM card without signing up for a new plan. Of course, even if this works for you, you might never, ever be able to update your iPhone software again, or at least you might end up having to wait a long time for new hacks to allow new updates. You might not be able to update iTunes either, because later versions of iTunes might attempt to deactivate, report, and/or brick any unlocked iPhone that you try to sync.
If your current carrier is AT&T you might also run that risk that AT&T could detect that you were using an iPhone, via the phone's IMEI, without having gone through what they consider appropriate channels to do so.
And of course some people might simply be deceived into buying iPhones on eBay based on their own lack or knowledge or deliberate misinformation from dishonest sellers.
I'd never, ever consider buying a cell phone on eBay. I've had great experiences with eBay when it comes to selling used computers and some used audio equipment too, but when I tried to sell a used cell phone, that really brought the fraudulent side of eBay crawling out of the woodwork.
Three times in a row, over the course of about two months of trying to auction an unlocked GSM cellphone that I bought when I was at Heathrow (an expensive impulse purchase so that I'd have a cellphone I could use while traveling, something my then-Verizon CDMA phone wasn't much good for), my auctions all ended with a last-minute ridiculously high bid, from someone who obviously had no intention whatsoever of actually paying the outlandish price they bid. Each attempted to defraud me by e-mailing faked PayPal payment notices.
The fraud was easy to detect and I was never in danger of falling for it, but each incident locked out all honest buyers that I might have sold to, required a struggle with eBay to recover the auction fees, and led to a 15 day delay before I could re-list and attempt to sell again.
I gave up completely. That phone is still sitting in box, ready for shipment, stashed in a closet somewhere. I'll just treat it as a spare, I guess.
You could just do a pre-paid plan - its month by month. No contract. Check Google for info how.
AT&T has prepaid plans, yes -- I bought one to use with my old cell phone that I had before getting an iPhone, in fact -- but I'm pretty damned sure that those plans are not available for iPhones. By the official terms for activating an iPhone, it's a two-year obligation to a voice+data plan (the cheapest qualifying plan being about $60/month) or nothing.
You could just do a pre-paid plan - its month by month. No contract. Check Google for info how.
I did a Google search but everything I found says it's all rumors. Do you have a site that says it's available ?
I did a Google search but everything I found says it's all rumors. Do you have a site that says it's available ?
The owner of a phone has the right to enter into contract with any carrier for service. Overcoming the technical limitations isn't illegal, merely difficult. The phone manufacturer isn't obligated to provide a technical solution.
The owner of a phone has the right to enter into contract with any carrier for service. Overcoming the technical limitations isn't illegal, merely difficult. The phone manufacturer isn't obligated to provide a technical solution.
I went to the AT&T store and bought the Iphone. I put it in the trunk of my car to activate it when I got home as per the instructions given to me by the village idiot, I mean store employee.
I got in my car and headed to do other errands and when I tried to make a call my current phone it was inactive ! This rocket scientist had disconnected my service for some unknown reason. I went back and the guy didn't know how to correct it. He changed my SIM card and nothing. We ended up calling tech support on the phone and they activated it again. While all this is going on the next store leach told me I had to buy a $15 dollar something to transfer my contacts from my old phone to the IPhone. I was already upset for wasting my time and then this guy says I need to pay more so I just went to my car, puled out the Iphone and had them reverse everything !
Can't I just activate my Iphone, take the SIM card out and place it in my old phone, transfer contacts to the Iphone SIM and then put it back in my Iphone
Tomorrow I'll go to the Apple Store and buy it there. When I get a chance I'll activate it. At least this store isn't going to get the sale.
Your current SIM card simply won't work in an iPhone. I've managed to use my iPhone's SIM card in two other unlocked phones so far, but that doesn't work vice-versa. The iPhone will only recognize and lock with special SIM cards...
OK so then could I activate my Iphone then take the activated Iphone SIM and put it in my current phone. Copy my contacts from my current phone to the Iphone SIM and then put it back in the Iphone and it will work ?
OK so then could I activate my Iphone then take the activated Iphone SIM and put it in my current phone. Copy my contacts from my current phone to the Iphone SIM and then put it back in the Iphone and it will work ?
Probably not. However...
The iPhone will import contact information from my Mac's Address Book app and I remember several other import options available when I was at that point in my activation process, including (I believe) the option to import from an Exchange address book. If your present phone has the capability of transferring it's information to your computer you'll be able to import that into the iPhone.
AND, if your phone isn't quite that smart, perhaps you'll appreciate the iPhone all that much more!
OK so then could I activate my Iphone then take the activated Iphone SIM and put it in my current phone. Copy my contacts from my current phone to the Iphone SIM and then put it back in the Iphone and it will work ?
I never tried copying contacts -- I had all of the contacts I'd want to put on my phone in my Mac's address book already. But I have successfully used the activated SIM from my iPhone in my old Windows Mobile smartphone. It was able to make and received calls just fine, and data services worked too. In case I ever need Bluetooth laptop tethering, which the iPhone lacks, I can still use the old phone as a fall-back plan.