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AT&T says my area is "not eligible"

W

wyneken

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 26, 2010
234
0
The great State of Maine
I was about to pull the trigger at last and order an iPhone, but after filling in the information for AT&T to determine my "eligibility" I got a message saying that the area where I live is not authorized for new activations, or words to that effect.

I assume this is a coverage issue. According to the AT&T coverage map (and anecdotally from friends with iPhones), I'm on a thin strip of the Maine coast that has "good" reception, though only a mile or so inland, because of hills and mountains and whatnot, coverage drops to zero. So I'm guessing that to be on the safe side, Apple/AT&T are not selling phones to anyone in this area, since the majority of people would have serious problems.

So ... is there any way around this? This would be my first cell phone ever, so I'm kind of naive about how everything works.
 
Where in Maine are you? I'm in the Portland area and recently went to an Auburn AT&T store and they were selling iPhone 4s. That also seems to be the edge of AT&Ts 3G coverage in Maine too.

You could just come down to the Portland area and buy one
 
The problem is that AT&T does not have any coverage in Maine outside of the Portland area. They rely on partnership agreements for roaming coverage throughout Maine. This means that any time you used your phone at home, you would be roaming and costing AT&T lots of money. AT&T will only sell phone to people whose residences have in-network coverage.

Even if you do somehow work around this using a friend's home address or something, you will probably quickly run into the problem of having more than 50% of your monthly usage off-network, which will cause AT&T first to give you a warning, and then to cancel your contract.
 
thelatinist said:
The problem is that AT&T does not have any coverage in Maine outside of the Portland area. They rely on partnership agreements for roaming coverage throughout Maine. This means that any time you used your phone at home, you would be roaming and costing AT&T lots of money. AT&T will only sell phone to people whose residences have in-network coverage.

Even if you do somehow work around this using a friend's home address or something, you will probably quickly run into the problem of having more than 50% of your monthly usage off-network, which will cause AT&T first to give you a warning, and then to cancel your contract.
Click to expand...

By looking at their (crappy) coverage maps, it looks like they have native coverage up to about Augusta, still really annoying
 
Shouldn't this be an opportunity to take advantage of an iPhone 4 at a subsidized price?

While it's disappointing that you won't be a bona-fide AT&T iPhone 4 user, if they can't uphold their end of the contract and cancel it on you, you now have an iPhone 4 that you can sell off or sign up with another carrier - provided it can get unlocked.
 
BeyondtheTech said:
Shouldn't this be an opportunity to take advantage of an iPhone 4 at a subsidized price?
Click to expand...

Ha, that's a cool way to look at it. I could end up, at worst, with the world's coolest iPod touch. Camera, FaceTime, retina display ... and a landline phone from the Lincolnville Telephone Company.

Thanks for these informative responses. The weird thing is, there ARE people around here who own and use iPhones. (I'm in the Camden area on the midcoast.) I guess I should ask one of them what their deal is.
 
you should be shopping the network that works in your area instead of the iPhone...otherwise months from now you'll come back saying how "crappy" AT&T is....
 
Thanks for sharing this wisdom with a newb.

The thing with me is, I don't really need a cell phone. But I'd love an iPhone. I've got a ist gen iPod touch which I quit using when I bought an iPad back in April. Now I'm kind of salivating over the camera and display et cetera of the iPhone (and it would be cool to unplug myself from the local phone company).

I guess the moose and I will have to wait a little longer until our need for connectivity becomes a priority.
 
wyneken said:
Ha, that's a cool way to look at it. I could end up, at worst, with the world's coolest iPod touch. Camera, FaceTime, retina display ... and a landline phone from the Lincolnville Telephone Company.

Thanks for these informative responses. The weird thing is, there ARE people around here who own and use iPhones. (I'm in the Camden area on the midcoast.) I guess I should ask one of them what their deal is.
Click to expand...

Maybe get a Microcell for the home if you get an ip4?
 
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