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at&t dumb phone data plan with factory unlocked iPhone?

B

BS1012

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 21, 2011
6
0
When I signed up with at&t, they gave me a $30 a month unlimited plan for my nokia n82 phone because it wasn't a smartphone in their opinion. Since then, I've switched my sim into a n95 and a n86 and they never said a word about it. Now that I just bought a factory unlocked iPhone, I'm wondering if I can cut my sim down, put it in the iPhone, and fly under at&t's radar once again.

I realize this would not work with a jailbroken or even the at&t non-subsidized unlocked phone some of you are buying from Apple. The IMEI numbers of these phones are apparently recognized by at&t almost instnatly. I understand this. But because I'm buying my phone factory unlocked, direct from Apple, I'm thinking at&t would have no way of knowing what I'm doing or be able to recognize the IMEI, just like they didn't know what I was doing when I swapped sims between nokia smartphones. Thoughts?
 
BS1012 said:
When I signed up with at&t, they gave me a $30 a month unlimited plan for my nokia n82 phone because it wasn't a smartphone in their opinion. Since then, I've switched my sim into a n95 and a n86 and they never said a word about it. Now that I just bought a factory unlocked iPhone, I'm wondering if I can cut my sim down, put it in the iPhone, and fly under at&t's radar once again.

I realize this would not work with a jailbroken or even the at&t non-subsidized unlocked phone some of you are buying from Apple. The IMEI numbers of these phones are apparently recognized by at&t almost instnatly. I understand this. But because I'm buying my phone factory unlocked, direct from Apple, I'm thinking at&t would have no way of knowing what I'm doing or be able to recognize the IMEI, just like they didn't know what I was doing when I swapped sims between nokia smartphones. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

They will still recognize it as an iPhone since you will have to buy a GSM unlocked iPhone. It won't work.
 
CBR900RR said:
OP, what do you mean by fly under at&t's radar , so you want to keep your $30 unlimited data plan or you don't want a data plan with you iphone.
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That's what I don't get either. If you already have unlimited data from before you are grandfathered into it. But if you are trying to use the iPhone without a data plan then yes they will find out sooner or later and add data to your account.
 
Sorry for not clarifying. Flying under the radar for me means keeping my $30 a month unlimited text and web for non-smartphones without automatically being upgraded to an iPhone plan when I put my freshly cut micro sim in my factory unlocked iPhone.

I still do not understand why it would not work in this particular case, because they would have no way of knowing what phone I am using if I never tell them. I didn't buy the unlocked phone from at&t, and they shouldn't have access to the IMEI number. Thus, theoretically, at&t will not know what type of phone I am using if I cut my own sim card down to fit my factory unlocked 4S which I bought online directly from Apple. I guess the only sure answer is to test and find out.
 
They might switch you to a Data Pro package, but my brother currently uses a Windows 7 phone without data and no issues so far. I think AT&T is more strict on iPhones though.

And, the system will always know what phone you are using regardless if you tell them or not. An iPhone is a smartphone and they will put you on a smartphone data plan.
 
BS1012 said:
Sorry for not clarifying. Flying under the radar for me means keeping my $30 a month unlimited text and web for non-smartphones without automatically being upgraded to an iPhone plan when I put my freshly cut micro sim in my factory unlocked iPhone.

I still do not understand why it would not work in this particular case, because they would have no way of knowing what phone I am using if I never tell them. I didn't buy the unlocked phone from at&t, and they shouldn't have access to the IMEI number. Thus, theoretically, at&t will not know what type of phone I am using if I cut my own sim card down to fit my factory unlocked 4S which I bought online directly from Apple. I guess the only sure answer is to test and find out.
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att will see you are using an unlocked iphone and that it does not have an iphone data plan.

:apple:
 
I think you can get away with it.....I have! Shhhhhhhh..... I took the SIM out of my wife's Samsung and she is on the family plan through ATT. Her phone has unlimited data plan for $10/month for "Non Smart Phone". I bought a used 3GS on Craigslist, unlocked it and have been using her same unlimited data plan after I changed the APN settings ever since. When you log into our account, it still thinks she has a Samsung phone.
 
evil30 said:
I think you can get away with it.....I have! Shhhhhhhh..... I took the SIM out of my wife's Samsung and she is on the family plan through ATT. Her phone has unlimited data plan for $10/month for "Non Smart Phone". I bought a used 3GS on Craigslist, unlocked it and have been using her same unlimited data plan after I changed the APN settings ever since. When you log into our account, it still thinks she has a Samsung phone.
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Thank you Evil30 for your story which does make sense. Again, for everyone else saying that at&t will know I'm using an unlocked iPhone without an iPhone data plan, I still question ... how? I'm not saying they won't catch on, I just don't get how they would because I didn't buy the phone from them at all. Just like with all my nokias, I can't see any possible way for them to detect what phone I'm using if I buy it [factory] unlocked completely outside their sphere of influence.

What do you mean about changing the APN settings?
 
If you do figure it out, let us know how it went. I'm not saying it will definitely happen, but they could add it later on after warning you about it. AT&T recognized my Nokia E71 and that was an unlocked smartphone.
 
I don't know how the AT&T system works but it is very straight forward to identify your phone based on IMEI. IMEI has various codes assigned to different manufacturers and they can go upto model level. With Apple its simpler coz all of their phones will be classified as smart phones. Possibly, some of the Nokias would escape if AT&T does not look deep enough in the IMEI code but i doubt Apple ones will..

Having said that, it would be interesting to find out otherwise.
 
BS1012 said:
at&t will know I'm using an unlocked iPhone without an iPhone data plan, I still question ... how?
Click to expand...

The IMEI of the phone is sent along with the SIM data when your phone connects to the carrier's network. Just last week I got my 4S in, which was actually purchased on one of my other lines on my family plan - but I took the SIM out of my iPhone 4 (the primary line) and put it in the 4S to use it on that line instead of the one the 4S was purchased for.

Surprisingly, when I logged into AT&T the next day, my account showed that the primary line was an iPhone 4S! I had not notified them, the only way they would know is from "decoding" the IMEI of the phone that was attaching on that number.

I guess it's kind of an academic exercise predicting exactly what will happen. They will detect the iPhone and change your plan, or they will detect the iPhone and "grandfather" you as an existing unlimited user, or they won't detect it. Those are the 3 choices, and with either of the latter two, you get your unlimited data. If that works out, consider it "gravy" - but if you end up having to choose one of the capped plans, well, that's not the end of the world. I've been on capped for a year (chose to give up unlimited in order to gain tethering) and even with my 4GB (tethering) cap, I haven't managed to even break 2GB what with wifi being available most of the time.
 
BS1012 said:
Thank you Evil30 for your story which does make sense. Again, for everyone else saying that at&t will know I'm using an unlocked iPhone without an iPhone data plan, I still question ... how? I'm not saying they won't catch on, I just don't get how they would because I didn't buy the phone from them at all. Just like with all my nokias, I can't see any possible way for them to detect what phone I'm using if I buy it [factory] unlocked completely outside their sphere of influence.

What do you mean about changing the APN settings?
Click to expand...

I use to have a blackberry curve before I got my 3G as a hand me down. So there shouldn't have been any way for them to know what phone I was using. But once i logged into my account it shows up I was using a iPhone 3G.
 
I believe AT&T have an imei data base of the own phone but not from other carrier, if I put the sim in an unlock tmobile blackberry 8900, it won't show in OLAM, but if I put it in an AT&T ip4, ip4s, and moto razr, it will show within minute.
 
Answer: It won't work.

Experience:
My friend from Hong Kong visited me in June and he was using a factory unlocked iPhone 4 (Model number is Hong Kong Version).
I borrowed one of my AT&T sim cards to him and the AT&T online system instantly recognized it is an iPhone 4. Then I called AT&T to give them a dumb phone IMEI and asked to add the $10 dumb phone unlimited data without any problem. I changed the APN setting on this phone and it works! BUT...AT&T sent me an e-mail and SMS in the next day told me the iPhone 4 requires smartphone data plan...they changed the dumb phone data to smartphone data (DataPro) automatically...so it works for the first day but will not after a few days...
 
Well, I've been using my personally cut micro sim in my factory unlocked 4S for two days now and I'm still on the unlimited data and messaging plan for non-smartphone users.

Interestingly, at&t instantly detected my phone -- and in their system and online, it tells me I'm using a 4S. Some of you were correct - it doesn't matter if factory unlocked from Apple, they're still going to automatically know. Still, under features, the data and web for non-smartphone users is still selected even though I see the options for iPhone packages. When I got my iPhone, I just went to unlockit.co.nz and got my apn settings on the phone.

I'm assuming at this point that at&t may do a system sweep and catch me soon. But for now, I'm still with my old package and wasn't automatically upgraded.
 
nixforfun said:
I don't know how the AT&T system works but it is very straight forward to identify your phone based on IMEI. IMEI has various codes assigned to different manufacturers and they can go upto model level. With Apple its simpler coz all of their phones will be classified as smart phones. Possibly, some of the Nokias would escape if AT&T does not look deep enough in the IMEI code but i doubt Apple ones will..

Having said that, it would be interesting to find out otherwise.
Click to expand...

The IMEI is actually very simple to decode if you have permission to query the right sources. AT&T doesn't even need to maintain their own list of IMEIs -- that information is all independently maintained in a manufacturer- and carrier-neutral database. After reading the first 8 digits of the IMEI, a carrier has all the information they need to tell them exactly what make, model, and hardware revision of phone you're using.

The final 6 digits of the IMEI will then give the carrier the ability to uniquely identify your particular handset out of all the other handsets of the same make and model everywhere in the world.
 
AT&T has a Magical & Revolutionary way of detecting what phones are on their network. It's called a computer :)
 
Well I got a Lumia 710 Unlocked Tmobile phone, and used it on at&t without them detecting it, even tough at&t offers the same phone. Also I bought a verizon iphone 4s, and will get a Gevey Sim to unlock it, and will try to trick at&t into thinking its a nonsmartphone. Before you say anything the sprint and verizon 4s are also gsm compatible.
 
zan986 said:
Well I got a Lumia 710 Unlocked Tmobile phone, and used it on at&t without them detecting it, even tough at&t offers the same phone. Also I bought a verizon iphone 4s, and will get a Gevey Sim to unlock it, and will try to trick at&t into thinking its a nonsmartphone. Before you say anything the sprint and verizon 4s are also gsm compatible.
Click to expand...

Why are you responding to a year old thread?
 
if you're talking unlocked iPhone 5, then your sim card needs to be provisioned for LTE. otherwise, you'll just get whatever original provision the simcard that you're using has (i.e. '4G', maybe even 3G since most basic phones are not even '4G')
 
This was the only thread I could find on this topic. Well I bought an iphone 4s Verizon, and used a gevey sim card, it worked with at&t, I disabled internet and 3g. But unfortunately at&t detected I was using an iphone. So the verizon iphone 4s was detected by at&t.
 
The phone based on IMEI. IMEI has various requirements allocated to different producers and they can go up to design level. With The apple company its easier because all of their mobile phone devices will be categorized as smart phones. Possibly, some of the Nokias would evade if AT&T does not look strong enough in the IMEI value but i think The apple company ones will..
 
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