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Become Upgrade Eligible for iPhone 3G?
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I forgot to mention, what about the people out there that sold their old iphones? wouldn't that cause the person who bought their old iphone that same problem with the IMEI? I just did this to my friends current iphone, and I am now worried that he or I might encounter some problems for doing this.
Well, i know for a fact that this does work, because a friend of mine from another board bought a used phone off craigslist and activated it last week and his account went from not eligible until 2/09 to being eligible now... Now, anyone in Atlanta with a first gen wanna help a guy out?
So I've read all these posts and I am in a similar situation. My wife has an iphone 2G and wants to keep it. I want a 3G iphone and prefer to get the $199/$299 price. We are on a family plan and the entire account is under my name.
Before reading all these posts I called up AT&T and asked them if I "used" her upgrade could I buy the 3G iphone and tie it to my account. The guy on the line said that was no problem, it couldn't be done in the store but could be done very easily over the phone. I distrust AT&T reps and usually call 3+ times with anything important to make sure I get a consistent answer, but didn't have the time today.
I am hesitant to do the SIM switch because my phone, a Blackberry, has a data plan already on it so I can get my corporate email, and I'm sure it will somehow screw it up. But do you think the info I got from the AT&T rep is bogus?
Before reading all these posts I called up AT&T and asked them if I "used" her upgrade could I buy the 3G iphone and tie it to my account. The guy on the line said that was no problem, it couldn't be done in the store but could be done very easily over the phone. I distrust AT&T reps and usually call 3+ times with anything important to make sure I get a consistent answer, but didn't have the time today.
I am hesitant to do the SIM switch because my phone, a Blackberry, has a data plan already on it so I can get my corporate email, and I'm sure it will somehow screw it up. But do you think the info I got from the AT&T rep is bogus?
I highly doubt they are going to come after people for IMEI, I mean how many people are really doing this? What about all the people that sold their iphones on ebay or "handed" it down early? It would be a cluster**** for ATT, the number of people scamming them out of $200 is so small its not worth their time or the potential fallout enforcing it would cause, plus they will make it back fast enough.
I tried it 5 minutes ago and seems to work. I was not upgrade eligible until 2/09. I tried the "switch" and put everything back as they were. Checked the AT&T site and i am now upgrade eligible. We'll see if they ask questions on Friday.
According to my local AT&T store, you can use the 3G iPhone on the 2G data plan. Wouldn't make much sense for people that don't live in a 3G area to purchase a plan that they cannot use. That's why AT&T decided to keep the current plans.
All of this IMEI nonsense is BS. They are not going to track your phone by IMEI just for the fact that 1. They know current iphone owners would have sold or handed down the phone early in preparation. 2. They dont have the time to look into IMEI, they will simply pull up the account and see if it qualifies.3. They dont care where you got the phone or if you still have it as long as your account shows you have an iphone plan. Case closed.
I get that when you put a new sim card in the iphone and connect to itunes it will prompt you set up a new account. I also get that you can then put the old sim card back into the iphone and it will work for the original user/sim card. But what happens when you connect the iphone back up to itunes with the original sim card in place? Will you need to set up iphone one last time with the original sim card info? Has anyone reconnected a iphone to itunes with the original sim card post swap? Does it prompt you to create a new account or does each sim card store the account info? I am trying to make this as drama free for the person who owns the borrowed iphone. Thanks
The owner should have no idea that anythign was done.
I can't see how AT&T would take the time to look into IMEI numbers when purchasing a new iPhone. Also, if this were true wouldn't it change the upgrade eligibility for the owner of the borrowed iPhone.
Kind of Upgrade Eligible
As we all know, we can become eligible for the upgrade price by adding a new line of service. So....
I'm going to add 2 new lines to my current family plan, and if I am correct ( and the ATT rep I talked to is correct), I can just keep my current phone plan and add 2 new lines for 30x2 (data) + 10x2 ( extra line ). This allows me to keep my cheaper family plan that I already have. I don't need extra minutes anyways. The total cost actually only comes out to 10 bucks more per month vs. if I were to just have 2 new iPhones under the new iPhone 3G Family Plan. ( This is after my 23% Business discount on Data + Voice ). Then when my contracts expire, I just drop the old lines.( I KNOW...I'm paying the extra 10 bucks a month which over time compensates for the cheaper phones in the beginning, but it's only 10 bucks and it will still be cheaper in the long run than an additional 200 bucks per phone as I don't have that much time left on the contracts. )
I even get 2 active spare phones...maybe one for the mom-in-law to have for emergencies.
Woo!
As we all know, we can become eligible for the upgrade price by adding a new line of service. So....
I'm going to add 2 new lines to my current family plan, and if I am correct ( and the ATT rep I talked to is correct), I can just keep my current phone plan and add 2 new lines for 30x2 (data) + 10x2 ( extra line ). This allows me to keep my cheaper family plan that I already have. I don't need extra minutes anyways. The total cost actually only comes out to 10 bucks more per month vs. if I were to just have 2 new iPhones under the new iPhone 3G Family Plan. ( This is after my 23% Business discount on Data + Voice ). Then when my contracts expire, I just drop the old lines.( I KNOW...I'm paying the extra 10 bucks a month which over time compensates for the cheaper phones in the beginning, but it's only 10 bucks and it will still be cheaper in the long run than an additional 200 bucks per phone as I don't have that much time left on the contracts. )
I even get 2 active spare phones...maybe one for the mom-in-law to have for emergencies.
Woo!
I just spoke with AT&T rep on the phone an dafter doing the "Switch", AT&T says no problem to upgrading. I hope this works for all.
Yep, I just tried the switch last night with a buddy's iPhone and now I'm upgrade-eligible. I wasn't eligible before until 2010, but my online upgrade status changed within minutes of adding the 2G data plan.
Now the big question is if I get any crap from AT&T reps on Friday. I'm guessing not, but until I have an iPhone in my hands for $199/299, I can't be too sure.
Now the big question is if I get any crap from AT&T reps on Friday. I'm guessing not, but until I have an iPhone in my hands for $199/299, I can't be too sure.
Just an update that I called AT&T again and this time the rep went and asked a supervisor and confirmed that you can do what I described above. So this should make the SIM card switching unnecessary for people in my situation (assuming she was correct)
i want to try this, but i have a question. After I do the swap/activation and the other person's account becomes upgrade eligible, do i need to re-activate the iphone for my account? i would think so, or else the iphone wouldnt recognize my sim because it was just activated for the other person's account. does anybody know. thanks.
You don't. I borrowed my friend's iPhone, put my SIM card in his phone, then activated the data plan on my account.
Then I took my SIM card out of his iPhone and put it back in my phone. He put his SIM back in and called me immediately, without having to register or activated his iPhone again. Apparently iPhone activation works on a per SIM card basis, not per iPhone.
Theoretically you could have 10 SIM cards and one iPhone and each SIM card would have a separate account and you would be able to switch between accounts whenever you wanted.
In short, no, you would not need to reactivate your SIM card, and even if someone else's account was activated on your iPhone, it will still recognize your own SIM.
When you did this, did all the contacts, music, etc remain on the iPhone? I'd like to try this, but my friend will need reassurance that his iPhone data won't be lost even though he could resynch it to recover if necessary. That might be more of a hassle then he's willing to deal with.