Data Blocking on the iPhone 3G or 3G S

[rdh94]

Hello everyone, I recently joined this forum because I have been looking into purchasing an iPhone 3G or 3Gs to replace my two and a half year old crappy flip phone. I realize that some of what I'm about to ask has been covered somewhere on the iphone forums and I have found answers to some of my questions by searching this forum. However, some of the answers don't 100% help me and they present a fair amount of conflicting information. So if you wouldn't mind bearing with my potential redundancy in order to help an iphone newbie out, I would greatly appreciate it.

As far as general info is concerned, I live in the U.S. and my wireless carrier is AT&T. I'm a college student and I spend the majority of my time on my school's campus, which has plentiful WiFi. Bearing this in mind, it is hard for me to justify the cost of the data plan, when I could access the internet on my iphone via my school's WiFi. This wouldn't be an issue for me since I don't need to be connected to the internet all the time, and if I could eliminate the costly data plan and use the iphone without internet where there isn't WiFi, I would buy an iphone in a heartbeat.

With that said here is my tentative plan to use an iphone with a voice and text plan, but without the data plan.

1. Buy the phone, activate it with data, and keep the data plan for a month or two.

2. Put my sim card back in my old phone, call AT&T, cancel the data plan.

3. Put my sim card back in the iphone.

4. Disable the iphone's ability to connect to the internet via AT&T's 3G or EDGE networks, and use the internet on the phone only where WiFi is available.

5. Use the phone with my voice/text plan and use the internet without a data plan via WiFi (where available).

I believe all of the above is possible, based on information I have gathered across the internet. However, step 4 of my plan seems the be the most convoluted. Once I eliminate my data plan I need to completely disable the iphone's ability to connect to the internet on 3G or EDGE so I don't incur any large accidental charges from data usage through AT&T. I am somewhat aware of a few possible techniques to do this; such as, APN changers, calling AT&T and having them block data via 3G or EDGE to my phone number, and disabling 3G in the iphone's settings.

Will these measures be adequate, or am I missing something? Also is it possible to do what I am trying to do without jailbreaking the phone? Ideally, I don't want to jailbreak the phone, but if it's the only way to do what I am trying to do, I might be willing to do so to install a master-switch program like BossPrefs. However, if jailbreaking is not necessary, I would rather not mess with it.

Any knowledgeable answers to my questions would be extremely helpful. Also, if anyone else has done the same thing with their iphone and would like to share their story/tips and tricks that would be great! Any other relevant information helps too.

I apologize in advance for any redundancy in my post, but I'm new to the iphone world and I'm just trying to figure out how to do what I want to do the correct way so I don't get slammed with any accidental data charges.

Thanks in advance.

 

[TheNewsPaperBoy]

ATT requires that you have a data pkg on the iphone 3g and most likely more so on the 3gs. Why would you pay so much money if you arent going to utilize all its capabilities?? Just get another flippy or slider and get and itouch.

 

[rdh94]

ATT requires that you have a data pkg on the iphone 3g and most likely more so on the 3gs. Why would you pay so much money if you arent going to utilize all its capabilities?? Just get another flippy or slider and get and itouch.

You're post is besides the point, but I'll explain why. I don't need to buy that data plan when I am in the presence of WiFi 90% of the time. I can go the other 10% without connecting the the internet. There is no need for me to have a data plan when I wouldn't be using it 90% of the time, I would be throwing away the $360 in annual data usage.

As far as the ipod touch is concerned, a 16GB is $300 and since it's time for me to renew my contract, the iphone 3GS is $200 for 16GB. Instead of paying $50 for a cheap sliding phone and $300 for an ipod touch, I would rather save the $150 and buy an iphone which is more integrated (plus it has a camera) and scratch the data usage in the manner that i described above. Using my iphone in the aforementioned fashion.

My question is it's possible to do what I describe in my first post; and if so, how I would go about doing it?

Hope this helps.

 

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

I don't have a lot of info but I thought I remembered hearing that ATT performs automatic monthly audits of people's service. If their network detects you using an iPhone without a data plan, it adds it.

I wouldn't believe this 100% though, just passing along something I read.

 

[JPIndustrie]

You're post is besides the point, but I'll explain why. I don't need to buy that data plan when I am in the presence of WiFi 90% of the time. I can go the other 10%...

There's no need to explain it to us, we get it; it would be cheaper for you without a data plan.

The fact is, you can't run an iPhone 3G or 3GS on an ATT account officially without a data plan. If you somehow manage to put your number on one, there's no telling how long that may last as AT&T regularly audits accounts. If it is found that you are running an iPhone without a data plan, they will most likely add it back. They do not require advance notice as it is perfectly within their TOS to do so. It has happened to people before.

Your best bet is to try to get a WIX/data block on your number before you obtain an iPhone. That may hamper any attempt to add a data plan back on, however I would take that with a grain of salt. If they really want to (and they do) they will put it back on.