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Using iPhone without ATT's Data Plan!

O

ortuno2k

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 4, 2005
645
0
Hollywood, FL
Hello everyone,

Is it possible to tell AT&T to remove the data plan, and let me use the phone as a phone?
I'm thinking about canceling the data plan on both my wife and my iPhone; $60.00 a month starting to feel unnecessarily expensive.
How to I tell AT&T that I want to use another phone and have my plan changed? What about switching the "other" phone for iPhone later? Will they reactivate the iPhone plan?

What about closing my account with AT&T and using my iPhone with another carrier?

I just want to use the phone as a phone. No 3G, no data plan.
I'd still like to be able to use it on Wi-Fi, though.

Sorry for so many questions, but I thought I'd ask here.
I have iPhone 3G, my contract has expired... so I'm kinda free to go anywhere else.

Thanks!
 
RonHC

RonHC

macrumors 6502a
Apr 27, 2010
996
7
Use the search function next time

To your question: No, if you somehow did, they will re-add the data plan just by seeing the IMEI number. Since you said you are on AT&T, you can unlock your iPhone 3G and use it on T-Mobile but you will only get Edge
 
E

edk99

macrumors 6502a
May 27, 2009
859
1,409
FL
You can't cancel it. Even if you do manage to remove it, it will be automatically added back when att detects that you are using an iPhone and don't have a data plan.

Your best bet to reduce your bill is to move down to the 200mb plan which will be $15 each so $30 a month.
 
T

TruckdriverSean

macrumors 6502a
Feb 28, 2009
662
4
Texas, US
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

Switch your data plans to the $15/200MB plan. You'll probably lose the ability to get "unlimited" data again, but you'll save $30/month. (assuming you can live with only 200MB)

A smartphone without a data plan is like a sports car without tires, IMHO
 
baypharm

baypharm

macrumors 68000
Nov 15, 2007
1,951
973
Not sure why you would spend the money for an iPhone just to use it as a phone only. There are other cheaper alternatives out there like Metro PCS for $40 a month which includes everything.

The iPhone was designed and engineered to be more than just a talking device. If all you want is a basic phone to talk to people then I would cancel AT&T and go with a cheaper secondary service provider.
 
RetiredInFl

RetiredInFl

macrumors 68020
Jul 7, 2008
2,422
237
FORMERLY NJ now FL
baypharm said:
Not sure why you would spend the money for an iPhone just to use it as a phone only. There are other cheaper alternatives out there like Metro PCS for $40 a month which includes everything.

The iPhone was designed and engineered to be more than just a talking device. If all you want is a basic phone to talk to people then I would cancel AT&T and go with a cheaper secondary service provider.
Click to expand...

Some people really don't need data, WiFi is enough. 90% of my day I am somehow connected to WiFi either at home, office or at a hotspot. For me a data plan really wouldn't be necessary and I would have the same use of the phone 90% the time as someone paying $15-$30 for a data plan. Even without wi-fi the vast majority of the apps don't even need data including GPS. Music doesn't need data, contacts don't need data, calendar doesn't need data etc etc.
 
T

TurdFerguson

macrumors 6502
Jun 13, 2009
354
0
O'side!
TB07-NJ said:
Some people really don't need data, WiFi is enough. 90% of my day I am somehow connected to WiFi either at home, office or at a hotspot. For me a data plan really wouldn't be necessary and I would have the same use of the phone 90% the time as someone paying $15-$30 for a data plan. Even without wi-fi the vast majority of the apps don't even need data including GPS. Music doesn't need data, contacts don't need data, calendar doesn't need data etc etc.
Click to expand...

Then move to $15 a month. Thats your cheapest option. You could have just called AT&T or done a search....
 
N

NeoMayhem

macrumors 6502a
Aug 22, 2003
916
1
Never had a dataplan on either of the iPhones I have owned with ATT. Just put your sim in a non-smartphone, put a data block on your account and start using the iPhone again.
 
RetiredInFl

RetiredInFl

macrumors 68020
Jul 7, 2008
2,422
237
FORMERLY NJ now FL
TurdFerguson said:
Then move to $15 a month. Thats your cheapest option. You could have just called AT&T or done a search....
Click to expand...
HUH? I think you are replying to the wrong person. I have the $15 plan.

My point was I don't even need that. Someone commented that "why get the phone if you don't want a data plan." My reply simply explained there are a lot of reasons and the phone would still be just as good as someone with the DP with the abundance of Wi-Fi available.
 
RetiredInFl

RetiredInFl

macrumors 68020
Jul 7, 2008
2,422
237
FORMERLY NJ now FL
NeoMayhem said:
Never had a dataplan on either of the iPhones I have owned with ATT. Just put your sim in a non-smartphone, put a data block on your account and start using the iPhone again.
Click to expand...
Don't know how you managed to keep that going. Been there, done that. With an iPhone on ATT they "see" the IMEI number. If it's a 3G, 3GS or 4 they automatically tack on data very quickly. It took them about 3 days to tack on a data plan. I used a cut down SIM from a Moto Krzr with DATA and MMS both blocked. Either you're just born lucky or it didn't happen.
 
SDAVE

SDAVE

macrumors 68040
Jun 16, 2007
3,574
601
Nowhere
I managed to go on without a data plan for one of the lines with a 3G for 8 months, but it was activated later. Then I did the same, and a month later it was activated again. So I just kept the $15 plan and didn't even bother.
 
A

Aesop

macrumors member
Jul 28, 2010
39
0
The 2g I gave to my girl doesn't have data on it. She used her old sim from a dumbphone and hasn't had data on it for about three weeks now.

I plan to have her add it so she can be grandfathered in later when I get her a iPhone 4, but I wanted to wait to see if AT&T really does add data to your phone. I planned to add data myself when the billing cycle starts over on the 24th.
 
SDAVE

SDAVE

macrumors 68040
Jun 16, 2007
3,574
601
Nowhere
It won't add data to your line if your contract with an iPhone has expired. Which is 24 months.
 
I

Irish Rose

macrumors 65816
May 29, 2010
1,068
1
SDAVE said:
It won't add data to your line if your contract with an iPhone has expired. Which is 24 months.
Click to expand...

Sorry but with AT&T this is incorrect. All lines that have a smartphone require a data plan, regardless if you are out of a contract or not...... I paid full retail for my iPhone 4, wasn't in a contract, and the data plan was still added to my account......
 
RetiredInFl

RetiredInFl

macrumors 68020
Jul 7, 2008
2,422
237
FORMERLY NJ now FL
Irish Rose said:
Sorry but with AT&T this is incorrect. All lines that have a smartphone require a data plan, regardless if you are out of a contract or not...... I paid full retail for my iPhone 4, wasn't in a contract, and the data plan was still added to my account......
Click to expand...


Yep ... they started this a number of months ago.
 
einmusiker

einmusiker

macrumors 68040
Apr 26, 2010
3,001
355
Location: Location: Location:
it's possible on the earlier models, but not iphone 4 since they changed the size of the sim. You could possibly change the data plan by switching to a different phone and using some kind of sim card adaptor or something but my feeling is they would add it back on as soon as you started using the iphone4 again.
 
I

Irish Rose

macrumors 65816
May 29, 2010
1,068
1
einmusiker said:
You could possibly change the data plan by switching to a different phone and using some kind of sim card adaptor or something but my feeling is they would add it back on as soon as you started using the iphone4 again.
Click to expand...

AT&T will add it back as soon as you switch the SIM card back into the iPhone, as they can tell what device you are using by its IMEI number.
 
openendstraight

openendstraight

macrumors regular
May 5, 2010
132
0
La Vegas
TruckdriverSean said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

Switch your data plans to the $15/200MB plan. You'll probably lose the ability to get "unlimited" data again, but you'll save $30/month. (assuming you can live with only 200MB)

A smartphone without a data plan is like a sports car without tires, IMHO
Click to expand...

How is that? An iPhone without a data plan will still work like a phone (most of the features don't need the data plan), but a sports car without tires will not work like a car.
 
lavrishevo

lavrishevo

macrumors 68000
Jan 9, 2007
1,864
204
NJ
I gave my mother-in-law my 3G phone about a year ago with no data plan as she does not need it. When at home just connects to wifi. It is part of a family plan and to this date AT&T has never tried to add a data plan to it.
 
T

TruckdriverSean

macrumors 6502a
Feb 28, 2009
662
4
Texas, US
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

openendstraight said:
TruckdriverSean said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

Switch your data plans to the $15/200MB plan. You'll probably lose the ability to get "unlimited" data again, but you'll save $30/month. (assuming you can live with only 200MB)

A smartphone without a data plan is like a sports car without tires, IMHO
Click to expand...

How is that? An iPhone without a data plan will still work like a phone (most of the features don't need the data plan), but a sports car without tires will not work like a car.
Click to expand...

Ok, then how about "like a sports car on regular unleaded"?

Better?
:)
 
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