iPhone activation with another AT&T SIM

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ScotteusMaximus

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 2, 2005
Messages
415
so i'm an AT&T customer, but i can't use the iPhone on my current plan because i'm a legacy blue (pre-cingular) customer. what i'm thinking about doing is activating an iPhone with DVD jon's method while i wait for a true SIM unlock.

i know that if you activate an iPhone and then replace the SIM with a non-iPhone SIM from another AT&T phone, the iPhone will say that it's an invalid SIM.

what i can't seem to find an answer for, and i apologize if it's out there and i just haven't found it, is what happens if i were to run DVD jon's activation with an AT&T SIM from my current phone? i'm guessing that the phone function still won't work, but i also haven't found anybody who's tried it. if i were to try it, would the activation affect my SIM, preventing me from using it in my old phone?
 
Wait, why can't you get an iPhone with your existing plan if you're already an AT&T subscriber?
 
Optional87 said:
Wait, why can't you get an iPhone with your existing plan if you're already an AT&T subscriber?
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He's not willing to change his plan to a newer one that the 'New AT&T' offers. His existing plan is from 2+ years ago when AT&T Wireless and Cingular were seperate companies.
 
Unless you have some huge master deal, which you may, why not just upgrade your plan? Or replace it?
 
aphex187 said:
He's not willing to change his plan to a newer one that the 'New AT&T' offers. His existing plan is from 2+ years ago when AT&T Wireless and Cingular were seperate companies.
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yup.


theDreamer said:
Unless you have some huge master deal, which you may, why not just upgrade your plan? Or replace it?
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i wouldn't call it a master plan, but right now we have a family plan that has ~2000 minutes and 4 lines for about $100, we only pay for outgoing text messages (paying for incoming adds up when you're texting family members on the plan), and our nights and weekends start at 7PM, not 9PM. we've priced it out, and a comparable plan would cost us between 50 and 80 bucks more a month.
 
I kinda of follow, but do not. I have an old account & so does my friend from the cingular era. All he did & what I am going to be doing when getting the phone is signing a new 2 year contract, exact same features, etc., but I am adding 20 dollars a month because of the data plan.

So unless they are making you sign a new contract with new pricing, you should not have a problem, but my friend nor I am having price changes. Even though our accounts are old Cingular.
 
theDreamer said:
I kinda of follow, but do not. I have an old account & so does my friend from the cingular era. All he did & what I am going to be doing when getting the phone is signing a new 2 year contract, exact same features, etc., but I am adding 20 dollars a month because of the data plan.

So unless they are making you sign a new contract with new pricing, you should not have a problem, but my friend nor I am having price changes. Even though our accounts are old Cingular.
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The problem is the OP has a plan from 2 mergers ago that to this point has been grandfathered along and he isn't willing to part with. AT&T Wireless was purchased by Cingular. . .then Cingular was purchased by SBC - who has rebranded themselves as AT&T. His plan is apparently from his old AT&T Wireless days; tho I can't imagine AT&T allowing legacy plan pricing forever.

He's finding that the technology is passing him by and is facing the choice of old sweet rate plan or current technology (i.e. iPhone) and is looking for a way to keep both. But my guess if he were to try to add data access to his current plan, they'd force him to a currently-available plan as well. And without data network access, I don't see a whole lot of point in the iPhone. Maybe that's just me.
 
Ah, he is from the AT&T wireless era, I see.
I must say though, your plan must be coming up for renewal unless you got at right before Cingular took over, cause the new AT&T probably will not honor it or they maybe, but any new phone you get will add some feature.

Also, I do not think they will activate an iPhone (with out a hack) with no data plan also.
 
CreativeMac said:
The problem is the OP has a plan from 2 mergers ago that to this point has been grandfathered along and he isn't willing to part with. AT&T Wireless was purchased by Cingular. . .then Cingular was purchased by SBC - who has rebranded themselves as AT&T. His plan is apparently from his old AT&T Wireless days; tho I can't imagine AT&T allowing legacy plan pricing forever.

He's finding that the technology is passing him by and is facing the choice of old sweet rate plan or current technology (i.e. iPhone) and is looking for a way to keep both. But my guess if he were to try to add data access to his current plan, they'd force him to a currently-available plan as well. And without data network access, I don't see a whole lot of point in the iPhone. Maybe that's just me.
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yeah, so far AT&T has honored our plan, but they've been after us legacy blue customers for years, trying to get us to switch, but we just haven't found a good enough reason (the money we've saved is way more than the cost of new phones every 2 years).

i wouldn't say that technology is passing us by though. i can take my SIM and put it in any current AT&T branded GSM phone (except the iPhone) or any unlocked (including T-mobile) GSM phone and it will work. i guess the question is whether or not i want the iPhone badly enough to fork over almost another 1000 a year (signs point to no).

an unlocked iPhone wouldn't get me EDGE access, but i live, work, and spend 95% of my time in areas with excellent WiFi coverage, so EDGE isn't as important to me as some of the other features.


theDreamer said:
Also, I do not think they will activate an iPhone (with out a hack) with no data plan also.
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yeah, i figured that would be the case. what i'm really wondering is if using the hack with my current SIM in the iPhone would then tie it to that phone (so i don't get "incorrect SIM" errors), or if it would just ruin my SIM, leaving me totally phoneless.
 
ScotteusMaximus said:
yeah, so far AT&T has honored our plan, but they've been after us legacy blue customers for years, trying to get us to switch, but we just haven't found a good enough reason (the money we've saved is way more than the cost of new phones every 2 years).

i wouldn't say that technology is passing us by though. i can take my SIM and put it in any current AT&T branded GSM phone (except the iPhone) or any unlocked (including T-mobile) GSM phone and it will work.
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You mentioned that AT&T has been after the legacy (old AT&T Wireless) customers for years, but they've always honored your plan. My question to you would be whether you think AT&T will continue to honor your plan pricing for the long term (for the next year or more). Because from what you've written so far, I think that's what you're basing a lot of your decision-making on.

i guess the question is whether or not i want the iPhone badly enough to fork over almost another 1000 a year (signs point to no).
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How are you arriving at the figure of an additional $1000/year?
 
CreativeMac said:
You mentioned that AT&T has been after the legacy (old AT&T Wireless) customers for years, but they've always honored your plan. My question to you would be whether you think AT&T will continue to honor your plan pricing for the long term (for the next year or more). Because from what you've written so far, I think that's what you're basing a lot of your decision-making on.


How are you arriving at the figure of an additional $1000/year?
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additional $80 per month x 12 months = $960
 
CreativeMac said:
You mentioned that AT&T has been after the legacy (old AT&T Wireless) customers for years, but they've always honored your plan. My question to you would be whether you think AT&T will continue to honor your plan pricing for the long term (for the next year or more). Because from what you've written so far, I think that's what you're basing a lot of your decision-making on.


How are you arriving at the figure of an additional $1000/year?
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AT&T has honored our plan, but i don't know whether or not they will in the future. apart from the iPhone, there's no compelling reason to switch until we absolutely have to.

as for the $1000/yr, that number might've been a little high. right now we're paying ~100/month for our plan, and an equivalent iPhone family talk plan would be 150 for 2 iPhone lines, plus another 20 for 2 more non-iPhone lines, plus more for text messaging. also, having free incoming messages right now definitely saves some money. altogether, that's about 70-80 dollars more a month, times 12 months.

i suppose there's also the option of a regular family talk plan with only 1 iPhone line (~150/month, plus text messaging), but i want to look at all possibilities first, including attempting the activation hack with a current AT&T SIM, which is what i'm trying to find any information on.
 
ScotteusMaximus said:
as for the $1000/yr, that number might've been a little high. right now we're paying ~100/month for our plan, and an equivalent iPhone family talk plan would be 150 for 2 iPhone lines, plus another 20 for 2 more non-iPhone lines, plus more for text messaging. also, having free incoming messages right now definitely saves some money. altogether, that's about 70-80 dollars more a month, times 12 months.
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Of course, this equation changes completely the minute AT&T forces you to a current plan. If I were a betting man, I'd say that'd be no more than a year from now.
 
why not call and ask? that should be pretty much harmless.

and since the OP is now a month to month customer, at&t (IIRC) could chose to say,"sorry, we can't offer your plan anymore, you have till the end of your current billing cycle to either move to a current plan or terminate service." Not very likely until attws "blue" customers are few and far between...but not outside the realm of possibility.
 
bahula03 said:
why not call and ask? that should be pretty much harmless.

and since the OP is now a month to month customer, at&t (IIRC) could chose to say,"sorry, we can't offer your plan anymore, you have till the end of your current billing cycle to either move to a current plan or terminate service." Not very likely until attws "blue" customers are few and far between...but not outside the realm of possibility.
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I can't imagine this scenario is very common. I have to think there aren't too many old AT&T Wireless customers who haven't been fully assimilated into Cingular/AT&T by this point.

I was an AT&T Wireless customer for 3 or 4 years (1999-2003). Toward the end of my time with them, reaching customer service was completely impossible. I'd consistently wait on hold for 35-40 minutes and end up giving up before getting a human on the phone. By then, I was a month-to-month customer so I bailed on them and went to Cingular. And how typical that 6 months after I went to Cingular, they up and bought ATTWS.
 
bahula03 said:
why not call and ask? that should be pretty much harmless.

and since the OP is now a month to month customer, at&t (IIRC) could chose to say,"sorry, we can't offer your plan anymore, you have till the end of your current billing cycle to either move to a current plan or terminate service." Not very likely until attws "blue" customers are few and far between...but not outside the realm of possibility.
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i would think that if they could they would have already.

i was a legacy customer like the op and when i had a problem with my phone i was told that it would take a minimum of 6 weeks to get an replacement phone but i could get the same phone overnighted to me if i switched my account to their newer (crappier) plans. considering it would have cost me $20 a month more for less minutes i found it cheaper to buy a new phone online.
 
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