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Got an AT&T message saying I need a new SIM but the old one works. What to do?

I

iHavequestions

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 23, 2011
279
15
Hey guys,

I had an old iPhone 5s that has my current service attached to it. When I got my new iPhone 6, I simply put the old SIM in the new phone. As soon as I did, I got a text message from AT&T saying:

"Your new device requires a new SIM card to give you access to all services. Please visit your local ATT store to get a new SIM."

Do I really need to do that? I called my own number and it seems to be working fine. Data seems to be coming through as well.
 
I recall someone posting the same thing a few days ago. Maybe a search would turn up their findings. There was some speculation I think that the NFC chip interfaced in some way with the SIM, and so a new SIM was required for that. Others argued that the SIM didn't communicate with the NFC at all.

Sorry can't recall what the outcome was.
 
anthonymoody said:
I recall someone posting the same thing a few days ago. Maybe a search would turn up their findings. There was some speculation I think that the NFC chip interfaced in some way with the SIM, and so a new SIM was required for that. Others argued that the SIM didn't communicate with the NFC at all.

Sorry can't recall what the outcome was.
Click to expand...
I just realized, it could be something as dumb as that text message was initiated while the SIM card was removed but I didn't receive it til I put the new SIM in.
 
It's not NFC since the iPhone has NFC built into the phone. It's most likely something with Voice over LTE.
 
I received the same text with the new sim (that came with the phone) installed. Do I really need to go find an AT&T store to swap sims?
 
I really don't think so. In the past when they updated the SIMs for some new feature, there's always been some cosmetic difference. The SIM that came with my iPhone 6 looked identical to the one that came with my 5S

Curiously, I never actually got the text message though
 
According to the AT&T rep I spoke to, the 5S and other nano SIMs are not VoLTE ready, which is ironic because AT&T isn't ready either. The message has nothing to do with NFC, according to the rep.
 
zorinlynx said:
I just got this message a second time.

This is pretty ridiculous and is going to confuse non-technical users.
Click to expand...

When I activated my iPhone 6, I didn't need to pop in my old iPhone 5 sim. My phone number simply carried over to the new sim that was in the iPhone 6. Why not just do it the same way? Every iPhone I had owned, I never used the old sim and put it in the new phone. It carried over automatically when I activated.
 
I honestly don't know why they even bother to use SIM cards any more. If you can't move them from phone to phone, then what's the point?? I get the new iPhone every year, and hand my old phone down to somebody else in the family. We ALWAYS have to go to the store to make the switch.
 
Go to AT&T, get a new SIM and activate over the phone. It's a simple problem with a simple solution
 
wacky4alanis said:
I honestly don't know why they even bother to use SIM cards any more. If you can't move them from phone to phone, then what's the point?? I get the new iPhone every year, and hand my old phone down to somebody else in the family. We ALWAYS have to go to the store to make the switch.
Click to expand...

Research how Europe uses cell phones. Actually, the entire world besided America
 
Kendo said:
When I activated my iPhone 6, I didn't need to pop in my old iPhone 5 sim. My phone number simply carried over to the new sim that was in the iPhone 6. Why not just do it the same way? Every iPhone I had owned, I never used the old sim and put it in the new phone. It carried over automatically when I activated.
Click to expand...

I bought mine device-only and moved my SIM card to it.

There's no reason why this shouldn't work. Also, there's reports of people who are using the SIM that came with the phone getting this idiotic message too, so this is obviously an F-up on AT&T's part.
 
dont know if it helps, but i switched my SIM from an HTC One m8 and it worked slow.. chatted with ATT online and they needed the IMEI # and did whatever they did and phone worked fine after that. Didnt need to power off or anything
 
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