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Carrier [Confirmed] Verizon Unlimited Loophole

I did the online activation/switch and my iPhone isn't connected to the network. It is showing bars, but not actually registering. Any ideas?
 
VThokie7 said:
I did the online activation/switch and my iPhone isn't connected to the network. It is showing bars, but not actually registering. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

I had to restart the iphone and try to make a few calls first before it finally worked. Also make sure you turn off your old phone.
 
My setup.

Moms Phone) iPhone 4, Upgrade Availible, Unlimited Data
My Phone) iPhone 4S, No Upgrade Availible, Unlimited Data
Sisters Phone) iPhone 4S, No Upgrade Availible, Unlimited Data

I want take my moms upgrade, get an iPhone 5, and keep unlimited on my phone. My mom does not need unlimited data, as she would be ok on the 2GB plan. No Dumb Phones on the plan.

How do I go about this?
If i add a line, to get the upgrade, how do I cancel the new line without any recurring monthly fees, as we dont need another line at all.
 
djyoungcity said:
I want take my moms upgrade, get an iPhone 5, and keep unlimited on my phone. My mom does not need unlimited data, as she would be ok on the 2GB plan. No Dumb Phones on the plan.

How do I go about this?
If i add a line, to get the upgrade, how do I cancel the new line without any recurring monthly fees, as we dont need another line at all.
Click to expand...

Just upgrade your mom's line to an iPhone 5 w/ 2GB data plan. Swap the phones once it comes, your mom will have 2GB data then but you will still be on unlimited. Easy :)
 
djyoungcity said:
My setup.

Moms Phone) iPhone 4, Upgrade Availible, Unlimited Data
My Phone) iPhone 4S, No Upgrade Availible, Unlimited Data
Sisters Phone) iPhone 4S, No Upgrade Availible, Unlimited Data

I want take my moms upgrade, get an iPhone 5, and keep unlimited on my phone. My mom does not need unlimited data, as she would be ok on the 2GB plan. No Dumb Phones on the plan.

How do I go about this?
If i add a line, to get the upgrade, how do I cancel the new line without any recurring monthly fees, as we dont need another line at all.
Click to expand...

Read through the thread. The info you need and then some is all laid on in here.
 
Everyone is making too big a deal of this, as well as Verizon.

I received my phone in the mail today powered it on and played with it for a while before trying to activate it. I then totally psyched myself out by reading this thread thinking i cannot activate it, so I immediately called Verizon.

They then confirmed what everyone has been saying, "you need to wait 24 hours blah,blah blah" I said thank you and hung up. I immediately went on Verizon's website and went to activate/switch phone, typed all the necessary information, the IMEI #, the SIM #, chose the option for my unlimited data, then clicked submit. turned my iPhone5 off then back on. When the iPhone5 powered on I received a message on the screen stating it is activating and may be a few minutes, after about 30 seconds i had a working iPhone5 with unlimited data.

I forgot to state i ordered the i5 with another line that was eligible for an upgrade, then activated it on a different line.
 
djyoungcity said:
My setup.

Moms Phone) iPhone 4, Upgrade Availible, Unlimited Data
My Phone) iPhone 4S, No Upgrade Availible, Unlimited Data
Sisters Phone) iPhone 4S, No Upgrade Availible, Unlimited Data

I want take my moms upgrade, get an iPhone 5, and keep unlimited on my phone. My mom does not need unlimited data, as she would be ok on the 2GB plan. No Dumb Phones on the plan.

How do I go about this?
If i add a line, to get the upgrade, how do I cancel the new line without any recurring monthly fees, as we dont need another line at all.
Click to expand...

What kind of plan do you have? Family Shared?
You don't need to add a line.

1) Use the upgrade on your Mom's iP4 to get the iP5.
2) Select 2gb data on your Mom's plan.
DO NOT TURN ON THE iP5 once you get it.
3) If you did not turn on the iP5 yet, go online and transfer your iP5 info to the your iP4 account (IMEI#, SIM#, etc...)
If you did turn on your iP5, then you'll have to goto a Verizon Store and have them do it. Although a few ppl have been able to do it w/o changing SIM chips.
4) Enjoy your iP5 w/ UDP.
 
Last edited:
DizzyV6P said:
What kind of plan do you have? Family Shared?
You don't need to add a line.

1) Use the upgrade on your Mom's iP4 to get the iP5.
2) Select 2gb data on your Mom's plan.
DO NOT TURN ON THE iP5 once you get it.
3) If you did not turn on the iP5 yet, you could also do this online or on the phone w/ Verizon.
If you did turn on your iP5, then you'll have to goto a Verizon Store and have them switch the iP5 to your line w/ UDP (change sims) and keep your mom's iP4 on the 2gb data plan.
4) Enjoy your iP5 w/ UDP.
Click to expand...

Using the mom's available upgrade might hose her UDP. :eek:
 
halfmonkey,

I am completely ok with losing unlimited data for my mom. looking at the logs she uses maybe 200mb a month.
 
WeenNC said:
I had to restart the iphone and try to make a few calls first before it finally worked. Also make sure you turn off your old phone.
Click to expand...

Sadly that isn't working. After getting ahold of customer support, they said it is showing i'm in line for the switch but their system is taking a while. They didn't really have a timeline either.

So guess i'll have to drive home without it working and turn on the old one if i need it in a pinch.
 
muse5150 said:
Activating online didn't work for me. I got a message that the SIM could not be activated and I have to call customer service.
Click to expand...
The same thing is happening to me. I called CS and was told the SIM was locked to the number I upgraded from. He said I would have to first activate it on that line and then get a new SIM to transfer the phone to my primary. He mentioned it wasn't processed as an 'alternative upgrade' so that's why it's locked.

I don't understand how everyone else has been able to just activate it on a different line so easily.
 
Hello!

So I've read through this thread quite a bit, however, my situation is slightly unique because I live over 1000 miles away from my parents.

Here is how it is:

Me- iPhone 4S - Unlimited Data
Dad- iPhone 4S - 2GB data
Brother- iPhone 4S - 2GB data
Mom- Dumbphone - No data plan

We have an upgrade coming up in October and the plan is to switch the upgrade to my Mom's line, buy the iPhone 5 using her number, sign her up for the 2GB data plan, get the phone, leave it turned off, enter the IMEI/MEID online under activate/ switch phones on my line... and then am I good? Do I need to call Verizon to have them cancel the data plan or will it just stay off since it was never activated on her account? I wasn't sure if not having physical access to her phone would be an issue or not. Also, is there anyway that I could sell my 4S before activating the iPhone 5 and just using an old dumbphone, or will that kick me off my unlimited data?

Hopefully I was clear enough with my explanation! Any help would be appreciated!
 
VThokie7 said:
I did the online activation/switch and my iPhone isn't connected to the network. It is showing bars, but not actually registering. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

you might want to try changing your settings to allow location services to find you. i was having a similar issue and went into maps and clicked the little icon at the bottom and agreed to share my location and voila i was able to make calls. the rep on the phone suggested it.
 
I used the upgrade on the dummy line and yes the message went away after I activated the iPhone, And the iPhone now shows up on my line.
 
If you ordered the iP5 using the dumbphone and activate it to the unlimited data, what happens to the dumbphone? Do you still have to do anything so it keeps its dumbphone?
 
ajm222 said:
you might want to try changing your settings to allow location services to find you. i was having a similar issue and went into maps and clicked the little icon at the bottom and agreed to share my location and voila i was able to make calls. the rep on the phone suggested it.
Click to expand...

Thank you, I actually finally got it to work. Turned it off and on one last time and it went through. Now just have to wait to get home to get on wifi to restore all my maps. Wish I could use the LTE... And the work WIFI is almost non-existant. Ah well at-least I have a phone before I have to leave the office to drive home.
 
TdubyaC said:
Okay just did the Verizon online activation and was extremely painless.

Step 1 is Choose the Activate or Switch Device
Step 2 Select the phone number you want to activate the iphone on
Step 3 Enter the Imei/Meid number found on your box
Step 4 enter the ICCID number for your sim card also found on the box
It may say your data plan is not compatible and to choose a new one but mine still had the unlimited selected and i just pushed next.
Basically after that you can turn on the phone, my phone was showing the original number i ordered it one when i turned it on and seemed like it would activate on that but it didn't. The data plan on the dumb phone line also never even activated it seems so i didnt have to cancel that.
Click to expand...

This method worked great for me! I'm glad that I didn't have to deal with going to get a new sim card.
 
heyismejosh said:
no, you can add a line to your account without changing you data plan or being shared everything. thats what i did.
Click to expand...

Can you explain what exactly you did and how much it cost(s)?

I would want to add another iPhone to the account (it could be as simple as a 3gs, as my mom really doesn't care much about technology).
 
writtensarcasm said:
yes select the phone line that you want the iPhone 5 on, not the line that was eligible for the upgrade.

Type in the MEID from the back of the box,
Type in the SIM Card IICID from your receipt when prompted.

Pick a new Unlimited Data Plan or whatever plan you are using

Done
Click to expand...

damn, this sounds simple as hell. i guess i can finally jump in and preorder?

TdubyaC said:
Okay just did the Verizon online activation and was extremely painless.

Step 1 is Choose the Activate or Switch Device
Step 2 Select the phone number you want to activate the iphone on
Step 3 Enter the Imei/Meid number found on your box
Step 4 enter the ICCID number for your sim card also found on the box
It may say your data plan is not compatible and to choose a new one but mine still had the unlimited selected and i just pushed next.
Basically after that you can turn on the phone, my phone was showing the original number i ordered it one when i turned it on and seemed like it would activate on that but it didn't. The data plan on the dumb phone line also never even activated it seems so i didnt have to cancel that.
Click to expand...

wow, seems painless. this might be the day.
 
Last edited:
tbm248 said:
Can you explain what exactly you did and how much it cost(s)?

I would want to add another iPhone to the account (it could be as simple as a 3gs, as my mom really doesn't care much about technology).
Click to expand...

okay so pretty much what i did is when i went to preorder the iphone 5 i chose to add a new line. then as i ordered i just set everything to an individual plan. same as my plan 900minutes/unlimted text and then selected 2GB/$30. then a couple days ago i called verizon and ask them if i could switch my plan to the nationwide family share plan without changing my data he said yes and did that. so now im on the 700 minutes family share plan with unlimited data on my main line and 2gb on the second line. ($40) a month. but what i will do once i get my iphone 5 (stupid fedex running behind) i will activate my iphone 5 on my main line and place a dumb phone on the new line ($9.99).
 
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