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Inundated with ATT Iphone monthly cost. Ready to jump ship to TM

P

petalino

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 21, 2010
224
25
Hello.

I have 700 minutes plus Unlimited internet and messaging on my ATT account. All this costs about $130-$140 with tax.

TM offers unlimited everything I listed above for $79 plus tax.

TM does not carry the Iphone yet, but I have an locked IPhone 3Gs, which I plan to use with TM.

So, here are few questions:
I will obviously have to unlock my IPhone 3Gs in order to use it with T-Mobile.

How do I proceed with unlocking my Iphone? Any best solution recommended?

If I switch to TM, will I be able to access all of the mac specific features such as seamless Itunes integration with backups of my Iphone?

What I about all of the Apps that are on my Iphone now? Will they work and will I be able to update them through Itunes?

Will I be able to access the Apple APP STORE to buy new apps?

What will be different (besides the cost) if I switch from ATT to TM?

I guess that the new ICloud will be only available through ATT, or not?

What feature(s) will I loose and miss?

Any other comments coming from those who have switched to TM???

Thanks in advance.
 
Just JB your phone and unlock it to switch over to TMo, problem solved.

Not sure why you would due that, since ATT bought out Tmo (although it's going to take a while for that merger to finalize). But if you need to save money, I guess you do what you have to.
 
will I be able to update the OS as new updates come out if I am no longer with ATT, but with TM??
 
Money is the big issue.

I could be saving $40 per month or $480 per year. That's a lot.

Will jailbreaking still allow full Itunes integration with all the features as I described in my post?




noekozz said:
Just JB your phone and unlock it to switch over to TMo, problem solved.

Not sure why you would due that, since ATT bought out Tmo (although it's going to take a while for that merger to finalize). But if you need to save money, I guess you do what you have to.
Click to expand...
 
petalino said:
Money is the big issue.

I could be saving $40 per month or $480 per year. That's a lot.

Will jailbreaking still allow full Itunes integration with all the features as I described in my post?
Click to expand...

I understand and I agree with you, I myself have a family plan with ATT and my monthly bill is around $200/month.


You'll still have full integrated with itunes through JB, but always keep in mind that updating the software on your phone will erase your JB and unlock. And if there is a JB released for the new software update, you have to make sure it preserves your baseband or it'll lock your phone up again.

May I suggest visiting the hack section of this forum, it'll answer allot of the questions you have regarding JB.
 
AT&T can be pretty expensive.

You will loose the ability to connect to a 3G network and your iPhone on T-Mobile will only connect to T-Mobile's much slower Edge (2G) network.

noekozz said:
Just JB your phone and unlock it to switch over to TMo, problem solved.

Not sure why you would due that, since ATT bought out Tmo (although it's going to take a while for that merger to finalize).
Click to expand...

1) Not every iPhone is unlockable unless you want to sacrifice official iOS updates from Apple and the GPS functionality of your phone forever.
2) AT&T has not bought out T-Mobile yet.

Personally, if I was switching to T-Mobile, I'd just sell my iPhone and buy the Nexus S or something. Reason I say this is because you won't get 3G speeds on T-Mobile and it might be extremely slow.
 
Have you considered these options:

1. Straight Talk or Prepaid GoPhone - both on ATT network and you keep 3G speeds. Straight Talk is around $45 per month. See here: http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2536665

2. Family Plan - I have a family plan with 4 lines - works out to about $200-210 with corp discount. All 4 lines have iphones and unlimited family messaging.

If you do decide to go with Tmo, consider the disadvantages:
1. Edge only - you lose 3G
2. Unlocking - UL and JB are not the same. A jailbroken phone is not always unlocked. Some phones cannot be unlocked. iphone 4 on 4.1 or newer can't be software unlocked. You can use the Gevey SIM. The 3Gs can be software unlocked if it has never been past 4.0.1. OR, if it has, you can use the iPad baseband. The iPad baseband is permanent, voids warranty, and breaks GPS. Please research thourogly before going this route.

All syncing/backup/apps are unaffected by which carrier you use.
 
Had a friend who did that, said it was a big mistake.

It's so slow its pretty much worthless outside of texting and phone calls.
 
Seems like I would be asking for trouble, by trying to use the Iphone on TM network.

I do rely heavily on the internet and use of Skype, so good internet is a must.





Jazwire said:
Had a friend who did that, said it was a big mistake.

It's so slow its pretty much worthless outside of texting and phone calls.
Click to expand...
 
Wasn't there also rumors circulating that Apple is testing the next iPhone for Tmo and even Sprint?

I know this doesn't help the OP at this moment, but come September, maybe the next iPhone will support other carriers.
 
petalino said:
Seems like I would be asking for trouble, by trying to use the Iphone on TM network.

I do rely heavily on the internet and use of Skype, so good internet is a must.
Click to expand...

I've used an iPhone 3G on our local carrier who runs on the same GSM spectrum as TM. I can tell you without question the experience sucks. You may as well sign up for the lowest tier of data usage through TM to save even more dough, cause you'll probably never exceed it at the speeds you'll see.

If I were you I'd wait a bit and see if Apple finally brings the iPhone to Sprint and TM this fall when they supposedly update the i4.
 
petalino said:
Hello.

I have 700 minutes plus Unlimited internet and messaging on my ATT account. All this costs about $130-$140 with tax.

TM offers unlimited everything I listed above for $79 plus tax.

TM does not carry the Iphone yet, but I have an locked IPhone 3Gs, which I plan to use with TM.

So, here are few questions:
I will obviously have to unlock my IPhone 3Gs in order to use it with T-Mobile.

How do I proceed with unlocking my Iphone? Any best solution recommended?

If I switch to TM, will I be able to access all of the mac specific features such as seamless Itunes integration with backups of my Iphone?

What I about all of the Apps that are on my Iphone now? Will they work and will I be able to update them through Itunes?

Will I be able to access the Apple APP STORE to buy new apps?

What will be different (besides the cost) if I switch from ATT to TM?

I guess that the new ICloud will be only available through ATT, or not?

What feature(s) will I loose and miss?

Any other comments coming from those who have switched to TM???

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

That's a lot for 1 line. I haven't paid more than $90 since being with AT&T. I have the 450 min plan with unlimited any mobile, data, & messaging.
 
You can consider canceling the unlimited text messaging plan; it really is becoming unnecessary.

Start using Kik for free messaging between Android and iPhone users, and once iOS 5 rolls around with iMessage, you can use that for iPhone users (note: you can also use Kik between two iPhone users for free right now too).

As long as you have a data plan, that should cover your messages. Kik and iMessage solely use data. That will help bring down the cost of your bill.
 
psywzrd said:
This is probably the best advice given so far as long as you don't care about losing visual voicemail.
Click to expand...

Be warned that there are reports that they are monitoring data usage on those Straight Talk plans. Some folks are reporting getting their phones locked for using too much data.
 
yea really i have 2 line on my family plan 700 minutes shared, unlimited messaging and both with 2gb plans i pay $168 a month with taxes

before my family plan i had 450 mins, unl. texting, and unlimited data and only paid $98 a month
 
petalino said:
will I be able to update the OS as new updates come out if I am no longer with ATT, but with TM??
Click to expand...

Yes, but you'll have to be very careful with that. It'll remove your jailbreak (not sure if it relocks the phone). So you could end up with a brick for T-mobile until the jailbreakers update for the new firmware.
 
onthecouchagain said:
You can consider canceling the unlimited text messaging plan; it really is becoming unnecessary.

Start using Kik for free messaging between Android and iPhone users, and once iOS 5 rolls around with iMessage, you can use that for iPhone users (note: you can also use Kik between two iPhone users for free right now too).

As long as you have a data plan, that should cover your messages. Kik and iMessage solely use data. That will help bring down the cost of your bill.
Click to expand...

Or use google voice. GV provides both free texting and visual voice mail.

With a jailbroken iphone, you can use the GV SMS and GV Phone extensions from Cydia.
 
petalino said:
Hello.

I have 700 minutes plus Unlimited internet and messaging on my ATT account. All this costs about $130-$140 with tax.
Click to expand...

Something doesn't add up here - your minutes should be around $50, data $30, messaging $20. So about $100, about $115 after taxes and fees. We pay not much more than that for TWO iPhones with unlimited data and texts.

I would spend some time closely analyzing your usage and what you are being billed for. Do you use all of your minutes, or do you have a huge supply of roll-over minutes? (You should have a plan that you go over by a bit several times per year). Have you converted your unlimited messaging plan to the new plan that includes free calling to any mobile phone on any network? (Costs the same $20, but you have to ask for the change to be made). If your plan allows it, have you set up your A-list?

If something looks suspicious on your bill, call and make them explain it to you. Phone companies ALWAYS make mistakes on their bills, usually in their favor, and usually for less than $5 where most people can't be bothered. Then they obfuscate it in needlessly complex bills. It puts hundreds of millions in extra profits in their pockets every year though - and every big-player phone company I've ever dealt with it does the same thing.

Other options include the already mentioned method of using Google Voice for free messaging.

Lastly, if you don't already, use the AT&T iPhone app, which makes monitoring your usage and changing plans dead-simple. You have to keep on top of this to keep you bill from ballooning over time though.
 
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