Doesn't a new SIM cost money? Here in Canada, we usually need to spend $10 to get a new SIM card. They are not free. So that alone is reason for me to find AT&T's decision disgusting because it is a pointless move that just ends up costing customers extra money. The customer paid for the Universal SIM, so AT&T has no right to take ownership of it.
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AT&T Locking Apple Interchangeable SIMs in iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 [Updated]
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I'm sorry but I live in the EU. I can walk into a supermarket right now, pick up a pay as you go data SIM on a carrier of my choice, and put it into my iPad. I don't have to show any form of ID, and I can even pay cash for it should I choose to.
I haven't read through the whole thread, but I'm not surprised at this.
It's not specific to this Apple SIM either. Something AT&T does makes SIM's incapable of being updated once they're in use. I've had SIM's on Verizon and T-Mobile and they are totally reusable. I can take a SIM from a phone, move the number to a different SIM, wait 24 hours, then reactivate that SIM with a different number.
With AT&T, it has always been that once it's had a number programmed on it, they can not do anything else with it. It's weird, but that's just how their system is set up.
Luckily, SIM's are typically free so no huge deal outside of some inconvenience.
It's not specific to this Apple SIM either. Something AT&T does makes SIM's incapable of being updated once they're in use. I've had SIM's on Verizon and T-Mobile and they are totally reusable. I can take a SIM from a phone, move the number to a different SIM, wait 24 hours, then reactivate that SIM with a different number.
With AT&T, it has always been that once it's had a number programmed on it, they can not do anything else with it. It's weird, but that's just how their system is set up.
Luckily, SIM's are typically free so no huge deal outside of some inconvenience.
They never said anything about the Apple SIM during the keynote. That detail wasn't learned until afterward.
It's less convenient but get an AT&T sim card and activate AT&T on it. Keep your Apple sim T-Mobile / sprint and switch between sim cards if you need AT&T or the others (i.e. keep 2 sim cards).
"Because I said so!"
This is the most @$$hol# type of line I've heard from a corporate spokesperson in a long time. And it's not entirely that person's fault; it's this or tell the truth, which would have been an even more @$$hol#ish line.
This is the most @$$hol# type of line I've heard from a corporate spokesperson in a long time. And it's not entirely that person's fault; it's this or tell the truth, which would have been an even more @$$hol#ish line.
After further thinking, it seems ATT writes something proprietory on a SIM card in order to identify it. It seems this can be corrected. ATT is just a little outdated with the SIM card technology than Apple.
They also gave you notice that you would be locking that AppleSIM to AT&T when you agreed to sign up for the AT&T service as the on-device prompt clearly states. If you didn't want to lock the AppleSIM to AT&T then you should not tap the accept button. It's not Apple's fault that you don't bother to read what you are agreeing to.
Again, I think this is a stupid move by AT&T. Having worked at AT&T, those who are guessing that this is a systematic issue due to security issues would be correct and it's likely that AT&T is not willing to go to the expense of altering their network to support this more than adding the AppleSIM ICCID to their database at activation. They would have been better off simply taking the route Verizon did, rather than half supporting this AppleSIM design.
-PopinFRESH
You know, I'm not just making this stuff up. Clearly you don't travel a lot. What you wrote above may work in theory, but practice is very different. Just last month I bought a SIM in Germany at the airport (the only SIM they had in Nano format). Turns out, the only way to activate it was by sending an SMS or calling a special number from the device you wanted to activate. Good look doing that with an iPad. Then I went to a T-Mobile store. They refused to give me a SIM without proof of a German residential address. A few weeks before that, I was trying to get a SIM for the iPad in Canada. I got a Rogers one that you could activate directly in the iPad according to the store clerk. Great, I thought ... until I discovered you cannot activate it using a credit card with a US billing address. This kind of thing is very common. And usually the clerks in the airport stores have no clue about iPads and data plans anyway, since most customers are primarily interested in plans for voice calling.
How is AT&T doing this but Sprint is ok with the full concept?! Sprint loves locking down phones....wow time to arm the harpoons and canons and head over to AT&T!!
I live in the EU. I travel around it regularly. I have never had an issue getting a PAYG sim for either my iPhone or iPad. Having said that I no longer need to as my carrier (3 UK) now offer me 25 GB per month data roaming and voice roaming within plan minutes at no extra charge.
Not sure if it is possible, but Apple should redesign the SIM so that it cannot be locked. Then if ATT wants to used a locked SIM, they can give you a seporate one to put in the device without screwing up the provided open SIM.
Knowing Apple, if the device is under warranty they will swap it for free.
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You are confusing device locking with this. What you mentioned with your iPhone 5 was that the device was locked due to you taking a contract / subsidy for the device. This device lock is one that locks the device to only accept SIM cards from that carrier (in your case AT&T). Once you were out of contract they unlocked the device thus allowing you to use any compatible carriers SIM card in that device.
What this article is about is the newly designed AppleSIM, which we really don't have all the technical details as to how it works. However reasonable guesses based on research in similar areas is that this new AppleSIM is somewhat re-programmable allowing it to be activated on different carriers and thus having it's ICCID re-programmed. AT&T's restriction of requiring a SIM card be un-useable after it's initial activation I believe stems back to their (somewhat lazy) solution to prevent subscribers numbers from being cloned, resulting in fraudulent usage.
This has nothing to do with a device lock (be it on a phone, tablet, hotspot, etc.).
-PopinFRESH
Source: my coworker who has Sprint and an LTE phone (GS3 I think). He only gets LTE in the very northern tip of San Francisco. In San Jose: NOTHING. Sorry the facts so inconveniently get in the way of your shilling.
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Depends on which country you're in. In France, you must provide some form of ID even for pay as you go carriers.
If there was ever a reason to despise AT&T...
We were on AT&T and move to T-Mobile. Service is good and far cheaper and...
You know, large corporations that have been around for awhile are just evil. Chase is another institution that that is very much ant-consumer.
And this lie....about the iPad being unlocked. For all intent and purposes, it is locked, unless you don't mind paying for another SIM card.
And here I was all prepared to spend the remainder of the week venting on Rite-Aid and their dick move of turning off NFC at the register and AT&T has to go and steal the spotlight...