Considering purchase

[BJudd1983]

I am a current AT&T customer. I do not have the ability to switch to a traditional iPhone plan. I must continue to use traditional data plans. If I purchase an unlocked/jailbroken iPhone 3Gs will it work for me? Will I be able to use the phone as if it were being used in the correct way, ie. iTunes, App Store, etc.? The phone is already jailbroken and unlocked will I have to do anything other than place my SIM card in the phone? I have purchased a phone from a different carrier before and had trouble with SMS and Voicemail, will this work properly? I am completely an amateur at this, will there be any hurdles that will be difficult for me to overcome?

Thanks so much!

 

[PsstGreek]

I am a current AT&T customer. I do not have the ability to switch to a traditional iPhone plan. I must continue to use traditional data plans. If I purchase an unlocked/jailbroken iPhone 3Gs will it work for me? Will I be able to use the phone as if it were being used in the correct way, ie. iTunes, App Store, etc.? The phone is already jailbroken and unlocked will I have to do anything other than place my SIM card in the phone? I have purchased a phone from a different carrier before and had trouble with SMS and Voicemail, will this work properly? I am completely an amateur at this, will there be any hurdles that will be difficult for me to overcome?

Thanks so much!

Since you're on AT&T you don't need to buy an unlocked iphone. Having one unlocked just enables an iPhone user to use it with T-Mobile in the U.S. Everything will work normally. All the iOS updates can be jailbroken if you wish to do that to your iPhone.

Since you'll be a novice iPhone user, if you restore your iPhone it will erase and the unlock/jailbreak. Read up on these links here to get some knowledge on the iPhone (unlocking, jailbreaking, shsh files, basebands).

http://theiphonewiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=SHSH

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_version_history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_jailbreaking

 

[BJudd1983]

I have tried putting my AT&T SIM card in a regular iPhone and it didn't work. Does the jailbreak make it accept my non iPhone SIM card? The iPhone is a 3Gs with iOS 4. I understand that I can connect it to iTunes. I should not do any updates to the phone? If I update the phone it will have to be jail broken again? My concern is that again I cannot switch to the traditional iPhone service plans. I will have to keep the service plan that I use for a Windows mobile smartphone.

 

[PsstGreek]

I have tried putting my AT&T SIM card in a regular iPhone and it didn't work. Does the jailbreak make it accept my non iPhone SIM card? The iPhone is a 3Gs with iOS 4. I understand that I can connect it to iTunes. I should not do any updates to the phone? If I update the phone it will have to be jail broken again? My concern is that again I cannot switch to the traditional iPhone service plans. I will have to keep the service plan that I use for a Windows mobile smartphone.

Your sim card should work automatically. Jailbreaking allows the iPhone user to customize the iPhone and buy/use 3rd party apps that Apple doesn't allow.

Correct. If you update the iPhone you'll lose the jailbreak and you'll have to redo it.

When you put the sim card in, what does the iPhone do?

 

[dgstan]

It is my understanding that if you try to use an iPhone without the correct data plan, AT&T will detect it and automatically switch you to the appropriate plan.

 

[BJudd1983]

I apologize for being such a novice. I truly appreciate your help!

I tried this a couple of years ago on a stock iPhone. Whenever I put the sim card in the phone didn't recognize it. I'm thinking that even though I have AT&T since I'm not switching to iPhone data package the phone still must be unlocked???

 

[PsstGreek]

I apologize for being such a novice. I truly appreciate your help!

I tried this a couple of years ago on a stock iPhone. Whenever I put the sim card in the phone didn't recognize it. I'm thinking that even though I have AT&T since I'm not switching to iPhone data package the phone still must be unlocked???

From the above poster said, I think that's the issue as to why your sim isn't be recognized.

 

[BJudd1983]

So if the phone is unlocked I should be okay?

 

[chargit]

unlocked has nothing to do with it. all unlocking does is allow you to use T~Mobile in the USA.

why cant your switch to the iPhone data plan? never heard of this before. At&t will no doubt force you to switch when they detect the iPhone on their system. but I have had customers with a Black Berry that switched to the iPhone and their sim would not work in it. they had to go to At&t to get a sim for the iPhone.