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

Unlocked 3GS With GoPhone?

A

AppleTech22

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 10, 2010
548
127
US
I am wondering if I could buy an unlocked 3GS and use that with my GoPhone service. I already have a data plan for the LG Thrive that I have now so that wouldn't be a problem although I would just turn off the data usage anyway.

If anyone has done this, how did it go for you? Should I just stick with my Android based GoPhone or does using the iPhone on GoPhone work well?
 
Gophone Simcard should work no problem in any 3G/3GS. Does not even need to be unlocked since u are still with ATT.
 
My brother and a bunch of friends are using gophone sims in iphones 3g and 3gs. im actually using an iphone 4 on gophone with a legit att micro sim.
 
not really. i know tons of people who use iphones like that. ATT dont like people doing it so ATT could potentially figure it out and cut your sim off. Ive been using gophone sims in iphones for about 3 years now so im guessing it dont happen very often.
 
I am currently using an iPhone 4 with a gophone sim (I highly doubt that there is any difference between iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS), and it's working perfectly fine! Because you're using AT&T, you don't even need an unlocked phone.

Voice works great.
You can even use data for emergency times, but beware, it takes up a lot of money. :(
 
snowman1 said:
I am currently using an iPhone 4 with a gophone sim (I highly doubt that there is any difference between iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS), and it's working perfectly fine! Because you're using AT&T, you don't even need an unlocked phone.

Voice works great.
You can even use data for emergency times, but beware, it takes up a lot of money. :(
Click to expand...

Sounds good. I have to use the money I spent on this thrive for a little use tho. I have the $5 data plan anyway
 
For those who have done this, how do you set it up? Is there some kind of procedure I should follow cause I know you have to sync to iTunes and everything.
 
If iphone is already being used then u just have to pop your sim in it and its ready to go. syncing it will not mess with your sim. If the iphone u buy has been restored and is displaying the 'connect to itunes' screen, then just plug phone in, pull up itunes and pop in an ATT sim into phone. It will activate the iphone. after that, ur good to go.
 
applemessiah said:
If iphone is already being used then u just have to pop your sim in it and its ready to go. syncing it will not mess with your sim. If the iphone u buy has been restored and is displaying the 'connect to itunes' screen, then just plug phone in, pull up itunes and pop in an ATT sim into phone. It will activate the iphone. after that, ur good to go.
Click to expand...

Sounds good, buying tomorrow on eBay.
 
Are there any things that I have to be careful about? Like refilling my account by calling with the iPhone, etc. And also don't I need to enter in information while it is plugged into iTunes? Or will it just detect that my go phone sim is in and it will tell me that the setup is complete?
 
AppleTech22 said:
Are there any things that I have to be careful about? Like refilling my account by calling with the iPhone, etc. And also don't I need to enter in information while it is plugged into iTunes? Or will it just detect that my go phone sim is in and it will tell me that the setup is complete?
Click to expand...

Not really! It's just like a normal cell phone. Whenever you use up money in your account, at&t gives you this notification that tells you your balance (you can turn this feature off). This notification is NOT a text message, so it won't cost you anything.

I usually refill my account from AT&T's website...so I'm not sure if you can do it over the phone (but I imagine if you can do it from any other regular gophone, you can do it from the iPhone).

I think if you put the SIM in, everything will be fine. I doubt there will be any problems especially because the 3GS is unlocked. But, I've no experience with unlocked iPhones so I can't tell you for sure :(
 
Need some help here. I put my sim in the correct way, and the top bar is saying no service. What do I have to do? Should I restore the phone then try. It came wiped, but unlockable right when I opened it.
 
AppleTech22 said:
Need some help here. I put my sim in the correct way, and the top bar is saying no service. What do I have to do? Should I restore the phone then try. It came wiped, but unlockable right when I opened it.
Click to expand...

Hmm.....make sure the SIM is properly fitted....then try a restore + sync with iTunes...hopefully that'll work...
 
snowman1 said:
Hmm.....make sure the SIM is properly fitted....then try a restore + sync with iTunes...hopefully that'll work...
Click to expand...

I restored and then synced, but nothing happened. Yes, the sim is in there right. Do I need to unlock the phone? If so how do I go about doing that safely?
 
AppleTech22 said:
I restored and then synced, but nothing happened. Yes, the sim is in there right. Do I need to unlock the phone? If so how do I go about doing that safely?
Click to expand...

Does iTunes recognize your iphone at all?

And I thought you bought the iPhone unlocked...if it's factory unlocked, then there is no process (it's unlocked no matter what). But whether or not it's unlocked shouldn't matter because you're still using an at&t sim card...
 
Ya iTunes recognizes my iPhone fine and I can put whatever I want on it, but it still says NO SERVICE on the top black bar.

And no I didn't buy the iPhone unlocked because people on here told me that I didn't need to. I think it only matters because I have a GoPhone SIM not a normal ATT SIM working with GoPhone.

Should I just unlock it and can the unlock be reversed?
 
I have unlocked the phone, but still no luck. Other sites have said that the sim card from the phone that I bought is locked to that phone for 6 months. Do I need to go into the store and get a new SIM by just saying that I lost mine, and if I do, can they make it so it is still locked to the device or will it be a free SIM.
 
AppleTech22 said:
Ya iTunes recognizes my iPhone fine and I can put whatever I want on it, but it still says NO SERVICE on the top black bar.

And no I didn't buy the iPhone unlocked because people on here told me that I didn't need to. I think it only matters because I have a GoPhone SIM not a normal ATT SIM working with GoPhone.

Should I just unlock it and can the unlock be reversed?
Click to expand...


You need to unlock your phone to use it with GoPhone. It doesn't matter what kind of iPhone it is, it still needs to be unlocked.

Also, buy an AT&T sim card off of eBay, don't go to the AT&T store because they might start asking questions for which you won't have answers and then they'll notice something sketchy is going on. God forbid you said you were gonna use the iPhone on prepaid because that's a big NO NO in AT&T opinion.

I got the SIM card off eBay, popped it into an unlocked iPhone 4, bought an airtime card (or you can refill online) and voila. Easy!
 
OK everyone,

I went to the ATT store because I need to keep my number, yet I want to get this thing working. I said that I had lost my SIM card and then they just asked me all the info, ex. address, and gave me a new SIM. I went into the car and popped it in and nothing, it searched for a longer time, but then came up with no service. So then I thought that maybe this was because I was using it too soon and it wasn't in their system, so I took it out and tried it in my normal Android GoPhone that the first SIM came with. That worked and that phone could text and call. Then I re-tried the SIM in the iPhone, but like expected nothing. This is starting to piss me off because everyone is saying that it's possible. I even went ahead and unlocked the phone like mentioned before.

What can I do here to make this work?????????
 
AppleTech22 said:
OK everyone,

I went to the ATT store because I need to keep my number, yet I want to get this thing working. I said that I had lost my SIM card and then they just asked me all the info, ex. address, and gave me a new SIM. I went into the car and popped it in and nothing, it searched for a longer time, but then came up with no service. So then I thought that maybe this was because I was using it too soon and it wasn't in their system, so I took it out and tried it in my normal Android GoPhone that the first SIM came with. That worked and that phone could text and call. Then I re-tried the SIM in the iPhone, but like expected nothing. This is starting to piss me off because everyone is saying that it's possible. I even went ahead and unlocked the phone like mentioned before.

What can I do here to make this work?????????
Click to expand...

The fact that your original SIM came with the android gophone might be a problem because when you buy a gophone with a sim in it, that sim is tied to that phone for some period of time. I'm not sure which thread mentioned this, but this might explain why it works on your android phone but not on the iPhone.
 
snowman1 said:
The fact that your original SIM came with the android gophone might be a problem because when you buy a gophone with a sim in it, that sim is tied to that phone for some period of time. I'm not sure which thread mentioned this, but this might explain why it works on your android phone but not on the iPhone.
Click to expand...

Here's what I'm going to do..

Call AT&T and tell, them I lost my phone and I bought an unlocked one, but can't use my SIM.
 
snowman1 said:
The fact that your original SIM came with the android gophone might be a problem because when you buy a gophone with a sim in it, that sim is tied to that phone for some period of time. I'm not sure which thread mentioned this, but this might explain why it works on your android phone but not on the iPhone.
Click to expand...

not entirely true....in some cases yes. I've ordered several phones from AT&T site that came with a sim and cut them down for our iphone 4's and they have worked perfectly.
 
petrucci666 said:
You need to unlock your phone to use it with GoPhone. It doesn't matter what kind of iPhone it is, it still needs to be unlocked.

Also, buy an AT&T sim card off of eBay, don't go to the AT&T store because they might start asking questions for which you won't have answers and then they'll notice something sketchy is going on. God forbid you said you were gonna use the iPhone on prepaid because that's a big NO NO in AT&T opinion.

I got the SIM card off eBay, popped it into an unlocked iPhone 4, bought an airtime card (or you can refill online) and voila. Easy!
Click to expand...

you don't need to unlock an AT&T iPhone to be able to use it on AT&T haha
 
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