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seeking advice on going to VZW and losing sim card capability

B737

B737

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 22, 2008
634
6
NJ
I simply cannot stay with AT&T any longer living in the Northeast, ive been with them since iPhone 3G, service at home, NYC and work is awful.

I do a lot of activities that arent cell phone friendly... but am required to carry my cell phone for work reasons.

my current solution works flawlessly... i remove the sim card from my iphone, swap it into a AT&T "go-phone", and carry the $20 go-phone while im doing activities that are 'high risk'. Snowboarding, Windsurfing ect. The gophone gets put into a plastic bag and is strapped to my wetsuit, its frequently fully immersed in water during somewhat violent crashes, (all year round) not a place i would take any smart phone.

when i switch to VZW i will need a work around thats going to be cost effective.

the ONLY thing im coming up with is getting a real gophone and activating it. but i feel like its silly to take on another cell phone bill for just these circumstances, two or three times a week for a few hours at a time. all the phone is used for is to 'monitor' my phone line, IF it rings from work, quick discussion (less than 2 minutes), or occasional infrequent text message. def not significant enough to justify an additional line... If i purchased a gophone with set minutes or text allotment it would likely expire before the minutes or txts are used, dont you just pay by the month then have to 'renew'?

i want out from AT&T bad... but im stuck...
 
I thought that even though Verizon didn't use SIM cards that it only took a minute or two to switch phones. It is just a slightly different process.
Not sure myself, as I am an AT&T customer.
 
Verizon and Sprint have complete control over which devices they allow on their network. I think the number they use is the ESN (I know very little about cdma 2000 networks), which is hard-coded onto a chip inside the phone.

A Verizon employee has to log into their system and instruct the network to allow communication with a particular ESN.
 
You just need two phones and not two bills. Switch the ESN online. It only takes seconds. Nothing to it. :cool:
 
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Just change the ESN online i know people who switch phones all the time.
 
I didnt buy insurance for my iphone considering that apple has a 1 year, and that they repair home button issues.
 
Beware: Data Issue

While it is true that it is super easy to switch esns right on your Verizon online account, I would offer a word of caution.

If you buy a Verizon iPhone while there is still unlimited data, you should be grandfathered in provided the iPhone stays on your account. However, if you have a second "recreation" non-smartphone that you put on your line from time to time, you may run into an issue. Once unlimited data is no longer offered and you switch to your recreation phone, you drop the data feature. When you go to activate the iPhone back on the line, you will most likely only be able to choose a tiered data plan and most likely will not be able to go back to unlimited.

Certainly if it were a temporary switch, say to wait for a replacement device, customer service may re-add unlimited data. If the device switches happen frequently, however, customer service will not keep re-adding an old feature.

So just a heads up on that scenario. Best bet may be a durable prepaid phone. $100 for a year's worth of service. Forward your iPhone to the prepaid when you need to.


johnfnwhiteside said:
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Just change the ESN online i know people who switch phones all the time.
Click to expand...
 
Buy a Lifeproof phone case, coming out tune end of this month. Then you can take your phone along on those high risk actvities :)
 
you can switch esns without a computer or anything. Just the new phone. Dial *228 from the new phone and hit option 1. Itll ask you for your cell # and either last 4 or password. Than itll activate by itself.

However, you can't use prepaid phones on a post paid account on verizon unless the prepaid device was activated for 6 months on a prepaid account.

Go buy a cheap lg accolade, lg cosmos,; etc on ebay. $50 at most.
 
As others have pointed out, you can easily switch phones either via the web, or just by dialing from the new one (assuming you've set up an account PIN on the web).

However, as others also mentioned, you can't do that if you're moving between a smartphone with a data plan and a dumbphone without a data plan, as customer service has to get involved.

So, two choices:

1) Add a second line for $10 a month for a dumbphone on a "family" plan. That's pretty cheap, and it shares your minutes. Or:

2) Buy a used smartphone off eBay/Craigslist as your second device, so the number swap will alway keep the data plan. That's what I do. For your outdoor activities, heck, think about paying for the ruggedized waterproof Android Casio Commando, even though it's not that big or fast.

And of course, if you use Google to store your contacts, calendar and personal mail, you can instantly access any of those from either phone as well. Especially if they have WiFi, so they stay sync'd up.
 
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oh man, this is brilliant, you guys are fantastic!
i feel so much better about swapping now.
i had no idea the ESNs could be swapped over the web or by just dialing the keypad thats perfect.

i think a smart phone to keep data consistency and just use the keypad to swap ESNs will be perfect. even easier than swapping sims.

cant thank you guys enough great ideas.

i hope i can hold out till the next iphone because im itching to just switch tomorrow ha!
 
B737 said:
i had no idea the ESNs could be swapped over the web or by just dialing the keypad thats perfect.
Click to expand...

Other advantages:

1) If you lose the phone or it's stolen, report it to Verizon and it'll be blacklisted and useless to any finder or thief.

2) You don't have to take the phone apart or risk damage just to swap SIMs. Or carry a SIM ejection tool :)

3) If you lose a phone, you can activate your spare until you find it. No need to go buy a replacement SIM in the middle of the night or before a trip. (Just ask my wife, who loses phones all the time.)

No wonder Apple wants a built-in electronic SIM. They never cared about SIMs to begin with, considering the way they don't use SIM contacts, and are usually locked to carriers.
 
I still have my old unlocked Blackberry Storm that I use occasionally. Just put in a tmobile sim card and use pay as you go. Use it when I just want to forward calls and also when I travel outside the country. I dont even have it set up for internet use. Not worth the headache. You can find those phones fairly cheap.
 
to be honest a simple call forwarding didnt even dawn on me, but that brings us to a separate line to pay for...

the more im learning about the ESNs, it actually sounds better than my current 'system', esp considering all my contacts are sync'd with google anyways. cant thank you guys enough, im so excited to go back to VZW now... ahhhh a real phone :)
 
kdarling said:
2) You don't have to take the phone apart or risk damage just to swap SIMs. Or carry a SIM ejection tool :)
Click to expand...

You dont have to take a phone apart to swap a sim or that hard to pop out the sim tray.
You make it sound not having a sim card is somehow an advantage where clearly its not. There's nothing better or easier than a sim card and that's why its a world standard;)
I dont want to have to call customer support to use a non-smartphone for a few hours or go online and log in to my account or punch in 20 numbers on my phone and remember what the number is to dial like *#$%228&@ or whatever the combination is.
 
fumbling with the sim card while wearing a 4 mill wetsuit, half leaned over into my truck, using the drivers seat as a work bench, in 10-20 knots of wind sux. esp messing with the micro sim adapter to fit it into my go phone. its also not fun messing with it in layers of ski clothes while overheating in the lodge lol!

swapping the ESNs is as easy as *228, im in! no taking the iphone out of its case, removing the sim, and doing the same thing on the other phone.

im on call for work a few days a week, sometimes they dont call me in and i can sneak in a few hours of windsurfing, its a way of life for me, I think the VZW phone will fit in perfectly.

side story rant... for work i spend a tremendous amount of time traveling and waiting around at major airports. i find the ATT network is just totally bogged down at places like Newark (C terminal specifically) and even today at O'Hare, it showed 3G 4 bars, i couldnt hold a voice call and data wouldnt even load, thats just absurd. 8 failed attempts to send an MMS, it only went through after i switched to Edge. its clear that this happens during peak times, it was a friday night, the airport was packed. im tired of it.

the guys at work with VZW do not encounter such anomalies. I just need to hang in there till the next iphone version, which is the hardest part...
 
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B737 said:
fumbling with the sim card while wearing a 4 mill wetsuit, half leaned over into my truck, using the drivers seat as a work bench, in 10-20 knots of wind sux. esp messing with the sim adapter to fit it into my go phone. its also not fun messing with it in layers of ski clothes while overheating in the lodge lol!

swapping the ESNs is as easy as *228, im in! no taking the iphone out of its case, removing the sim, and doing the same thing on the other phone.

im on call for work a few days a week, sometimes they dont call me in and i can sneak in a few hours of windsurfing, its a way of life for me, I think the VZW phone will fit in perfectly.
Click to expand...

Whatever floats your boat dude.
I wouldnt fumble with any cellphone at all in a wetsuit or leaned over in a truck in 20 knots of wind or during skiing etc....
I dont even take my phone near the beach, pool parties or while doing other things that can damage my $700 cellphone. I just stick in my sim in an old Moto Razr before I go and Im good.
 
im not directing any ranting at your AppleJ, all due respect. just towards ATT...

i agree, if im not on call, the phone stays in the car or in the lodge. but im on call for work. so it has to be with me, and i only have 15 minute window to return the call back.

im pretty active, and i dont want to destroy my iphone, so thats why ive lived with the sim swapping routine for so many years, and it has worked really well for all this time...
 
B737 said:
im not directing any ranting at your AppleJ, all due respect. just towards ATT...

i agree, if im not on call, the phone stays in the car or in the lodge. but im on call for work. so it has to be with me, and i only have 15 minute window to return the call back.

im pretty active, and i dont want to destroy my iphone, so thats why ive lived with the sim swapping routine for so many years, and it has worked really well for all this time...
Click to expand...

Non taken bro. Trust me I know not one network is perfect for everyone.
You gotta go with what works best for you and makes you happy.
For me the speed and coverage of AT&T in my local area where I spend 90% of my time is perfect. Also I wouldnt give up voice and data use at the same time to go to slow verizon CDMA speeds. I dont travel much like you so I dont get to experience the issues you had. If I do travel a few times here and there I can deal with it for a week or so if the part of the country Im visiting doesnt have decent coverage.
 
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Switching phones on CDMA seems easier instead of getting pin, removing sim and putting aim in another phone etc. you can just jump online with CDMA.

In my country we don't have CDMA so I don't know much about it but after what i have read this is what I think.

(sorry about the grammar I am on my phone)
 
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