Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

gophone sim card to Iiphone 3gs, Still work?

J

JoeJITSU

macrumors member
Original poster
Just went to walmart and I bought a gophone package. Tried to activate it with the iphone imei on the website and it gives me an error message. So I don't want to try until someone can help me out. Please let me know.
Joe
Thanks in advanced
 
You don't even need to have that sim in the GoPhone to activate the phone. Go to the GoPhone site and click on the activate phone.

It will ask for the IMEI number for the GoPhone (NOT THE iPhone IMEI) and a number from the sim. Once it says the GoPhone is activated, you can place it in the iPhone and use it.

It's simple as that. Really.

WARNING: if the GoPhone package offers a $50 credit or some other amount, it will tie that sim to the Gophone for six months. You won't be able to use it in the iPhone until the six months is over.
 
I bought the $30 phone with the $15 credit. I tried my other go phone sim last time and it didn't work. or is it because I stuck it in the gophone for a couple days. Thanks for your advice.
 
Wait until AT&T opens in the morning and then go in and ask them for a new sim. Tell them that you want to activate an old iPhone and they will give you the sim for free.

Since this sim isn't tied to that GoPhone now, you will be able to activate the sim and then use it in the iPhone immediately after activating the GoPhone.

Just remember on the website to use the GoPhones IMEI and not the iPhones. There won't be a problem in activating it this way and you will lose the $15 credit but you can use your iPhone as a GoPhone now.
 
SpaceKitty said:
Wait until AT&T opens in the morning and then go in and ask them for a new sim. Tell them that you want to activate an old iPhone and they will give you the sim for free.

Since this sim isn't tied to that GoPhone now, you will be able to activate the sim and then use it in the iPhone immediately after activating the GoPhone.

Just remember on the website to use the GoPhones IMEI and not the iPhones. There won't be a problem in activating it this way and you will lose the $15 credit but you can use your iPhone as a GoPhone now.
Click to expand...
How would I lose the $15? So I would be able to load $$$ on the the iphone later?
 
Ima try the original gophone IMEI.
so let me get this straight.
Just go to the go phone site and enter all info for the go phone.
after activating it, throw the sim card straight into the iphone not the go phone. Correct? Thanks spacekitty
 
JoeJITSU said:
How would I lose the $15? So I would be able to load $$$ on the the iphone later?
Click to expand...

Ok, in order for AT&T to credit your account with that $15, you need to activate the GoPhone using the sim that came with it. The trade off to get that $15 credit is that the sim card is LOCKED to that GoPhone for six months. You cam't use that sim in any other phone for six months.

This is why you need another sim card to activate the phone. Since this sim is not the sim that came with that GoPhone, you will lose the $15 credit but then you are free to use that sim in any other phone including the iPhone.

When you go to activate the GoPhone account, you can just place the sim immediately into the iPhone. Now go to the website and fill in everything that it asks. The IMEI that you need to give them is the IMEI number from the GoPhone, not the iPhone or you will get that error again.

You can load the account with money as soon as it activates which is instantly or in a few days or whenever you wish.
 
SpaceKitty said:
Ok, in order for AT&T to credit your account with that $15, you need to activate the GoPhone using the sim that came with it. The trade off to get that $15 credit is that the sim card is LOCKED to that GoPhone for six months. You cam't use that sim in any other phone for six months.

This is why you need another sim card to activate the phone. Since this sim is not the sim that came with that GoPhone, you will lose the $15 credit but then you are free to use that sim in any other phone including the iPhone.

When you go to activate the GoPhone account, you can just place the sim immediately into the iPhone. Now go to the website and fill in everything that it asks. The IMEI that you need to give them is the IMEI number from the GoPhone, not the iPhone or you will get that error again.

You can load the account with money as soon as it activates which is instantly or in a few days or whenever you wish.
Click to expand...
Ok, will go to the gophone site right now. Thanks
Still a little lost but Ill give this a shot first. Thanks again
 
holy sheesh. your a frickin genius. ok, I can't make calls? $15 credit will not work on there? right? I won't have to go to att for another sim, don't know if thats what you were saying. you will have to excuse me I get pretty stupid when I get sleepy. Thanks
 
JoeJITSU said:
holy sheesh. your a frickin genius. ok, I can't make calls? $15 credit will not work on there? right? I won't have to go to att for another sim, don't know if thats what you were saying. you will have to excuse me I get pretty stupid when I get sleepy. Thanks
Click to expand...
Re-read my posts in the morning after you get some sleep.

I'm not going to explain it all again. I'm getting some sleep now too.
 
SpaceKitty said:
Ok, in order for AT&T to credit your account with that $15, you need to activate the GoPhone using the sim that came with it. The trade off to get that $15 credit is that the sim card is LOCKED to that GoPhone for six months. You cam't use that sim in any other phone for six months.

This is why you need another sim card to activate the phone. Since this sim is not the sim that came with that GoPhone, you will lose the $15 credit but then you are free to use that sim in any other phone including the iPhone.

When you go to activate the GoPhone account, you can just place the sim immediately into the iPhone. Now go to the website and fill in everything that it asks. The IMEI that you need to give them is the IMEI number from the GoPhone, not the iPhone or you will get that error again.

You can load the account with money as soon as it activates which is instantly or in a few days or whenever you wish.
Click to expand...

Ok I did what you told me on going to activate the Gophone account with the sim, I placed it immediately in the iphone and it worked but did not give me the $15 credit.
In your words you said"This is why you need another sim card to activate the phone. Since this sim is not the sim that came with that GoPhone"
But this is the Sim that came with the Gophone.
So from what I understand your telling me in order to get my $15 credit I will have to get another sim, can this be any other gophone sim? or do I need to get a new one at the ATT store. Why can't I just buy minutes and forget about the $15 credit? I am not using the new gophone anyways...my daughter will be using it with her old gophone sim and account. Thanks for all that u do
 
OK one more explanation and then I'm out of this.

The GoPhone came with a sim card that if used to activate the GoPhone, you will get the $15 credit, BUT you can't use that sim in the iPhone for six months. GOT IT? IF you use the sim that came with that GoPhone, you can't use that sim in any other phone, for a whole six months. This is the trade off for getting that "generous" $15 credit.

You have said that you want to be able to use the sim from the GoPhone in your iPhone. This is why you need to use another sim instead of the one that came with the GoPhone. This is why you won't get the $15 credit BUT you CAN use the sim now in your iPhone NOW instead of in six months.

Understand?
 
SpaceKitty said:
OK one more explanation and then I'm out of this.

The GoPhone came with a sim card that if used to activate the GoPhone, you will get the $15 credit, BUT you can't use that sim in the iPhone for six months. GOT IT? IF you use the sim that came with that GoPhone, you can't use that sim in any other phone, for a whole six months. This is the trade off for getting that "generous" $15 credit.

You have said that you want to be able to use the sim from the GoPhone in your iPhone. This is why you need to use another sim instead of the one that came with the GoPhone. This is why you won't get the $15 credit BUT you CAN use the sim now in your iPhone NOW instead of in six months.

Understand?
Click to expand...

Nope, can you say it again😀
 
Alright, So I bought a gophone that had $15 credit on it, and I put $50 more to get the prepaid unlimited go plan. I wanted to put it in my iphone 3g but it didnt work. I understand why it didnt work now, but I want to get another sim from att and set another prepaid account up so I can use it in my unlocked iphone 3g. When I get the new sim card, and I go online, its gonna ask me for a IMEI number but I already used to IMEI number that was on the gophone. Can I put the iphones IMEI number in? Or can I put the gophones IMEI number in again? Thanks.
 
Yes, you can use the same IMEI # multiple times. I have three GoPhone accounts tied to the same GoPhone IMEI #. It doesn't matter, they all work in our iPhones.
 
Thank you so much I appreciate it!

Is there a way I can transfer my unlimited account that i have on my gophone, and put it on the new sim? Do you understand me? lol
 
ALLDAYLT1 said:
Thank you so much I appreciate it!

Is there a way I can transfer my unlimited account that i have on my gophone, and put it on the new sim? Do you understand me? lol
Click to expand...

AT&T will have to do that in store. You have plenty of time to do that today.
 
SpaceKitty said:
AT&T will have to do that in store. You have plenty of time to do that today.
Click to expand...

As soon as you told JoeJITSU he was gonna lose his $15 credit, he probably drove back to the Walmart store to get a refund.

He sure hasn't made an appearance back in this thread.

Why some people by an iPhone is beyond me.
 
dhlizard said:
As soon as you told JoeJITSU he was gonna lose his $15 credit, he probably drove back to the Walmart store to get a refund.

He sure hasn't made an appearance back in this thread.

Why some people by an iPhone is beyond me.
Click to expand...

Yeah I noticed he hasn't been back.

I bought the cheapest GoPhone two years ago so that I could activate an account and then use the sim in my 2G iPhone back then. I still had a real iPhone account but I wanted the GoPhone account for extra SMS because I bought two iPhones back then.

Since these two years, I have realized that I could have saved the money just by simply copying down the IMEI number listed on the box of any GoPhone. The phone itself isn't even needed to activate a GoPhone account, you just need the IMEI number and the number on the sim card that you can get anywhere.
 
SpaceKitty said:
Yeah I noticed he hasn't been back.

I bought the cheapest GoPhone two years ago so that I could activate an account and then use the sim in my 2G iPhone back then. I still had a real iPhone account but I wanted the GoPhone account for extra SMS because I bought two iPhones back then.

Since these two years, I have realized that I could have saved the money just by simply copying down the IMEI number listed on the box of any GoPhone. The phone itself isn't even needed to activate a GoPhone account, you just need the IMEI number and the number on the sim card that you can get anywhere.
Click to expand...

Like you said you copied those IMEI's from other GoPhone's boxes, are those available in places other than an AT&T store? Maybe a Target or Walmart or something?

(The IMEI is on the box!? Lol...)

Ok, I'm done re-reading everything and hopefully this makes a bit more sense now. So I can go buy a GoPhone package with the SIM...and activate the account with the -GoPhone IMEI and SIM- then put it in the iPhone?

I guess I just need to see it to make more sense of it.
 
xMastemah said:
Like you said you copied those IMEI's from other GoPhone's boxes, are those available in places other than an AT&T store? Maybe a Target or Walmart or something?

(The IMEI is on the box!? Lol...)
Click to expand...

Walmart, K-Mart, Radio Shack, BestBuy, anywhere that sells cellphones. Using the IMEI number over and over again doesn't hurt since the AT&T system will except the IMEI unlimited numbers of times. Take your iPhone and take a picture of the tag that has the IMEI number on it that is on the outside of the box.

Just enter the numbers on the AT&T site, enter the sim card number and when it says your account is active, it's ready to use in the iPhone. Simple as that.
 
Oh and of course the 3G and 3GS phones don't even need to be unlocked to use the GoPhone sims as long as the phones are running 3.0 or higher. They will activate any iPhone just as if it were a real iPhone sim.
 
SpaceKitty said:
Walmart, K-Mart, Radio Shack, BestBuy, anywhere that sells cellphones. Using the IMEI number over and over again doesn't hurt since the AT&T system will except the IMEI unlimited numbers of times. Take your iPhone and take a picture of the tag that has the IMEI number on it that is on the outside of the box.

Just enter the numbers on the AT&T site, enter the sim card number and when it says your account is active, it's ready to use in the iPhone. Simple as that.
Click to expand...

SpaceKitty said:
Oh and of course the 3G and 3GS phones don't even need to be unlocked to use the GoPhone sims as long as the phones are running 3.0 or higher. They will activate any iPhone just as if it were a real iPhone sim.
Click to expand...

Hahaha, thank you so much. I mean, I don't own an iPhone or anything yet (sometimes I feel like the only person on this entire forum who doesn't or hasn't owned one, ever) but this definitely makes me feel somewhat better about my future purchase since I can't engage in any contract due to leaving the country for 10 months soon. ):
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back