Using Canadian unlocked iPhone 4 in US on AT&T

[bolmsted]

I'm planning on taking vacation in Florida and would like to use my unlocked iPhone4 bought in Toronto Canada down in the US.

Can I buy a SIM from AT&T or T-Mobile, etc down there and put in my phone to get voice and data services to do the occasional phone call and data lookup while we are down there? I don't really care if it is 3G speed per se as my Blackberry uses Edge/GPRS and it is okay if this is a restriction of being on the 3G network.

I seem to see this reference to voice and data plans on PrePaid for AT&T (who has exclusive rights to iPhone currently) but the AT&T Corp/store seems to indicate they only do iPhone on contract.
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-plans/pyg-cell-phone-plans.jsp

I came across this but it may be old as far as buying a SIM card and getting a basic voice plan for $15 + data plan for $20 as the data plan is now 100MB rather than unlimited.
http://www.punkradiocast.com/blog/?p=332

I plan on being there for a week and just want to use my unlocked iPhone as "god" Steve Jobs intended.

Can I just buy a MicroSIM from AT&T and get it activated with Voice and Data and just don't tell them it is going in an iPhone which rings in their ears as must be in a contract? Will it just work with voice and data on the prepaid card and can they do this with a SIM card setup or do you have to have a GO Phone? (Man I'm researching this way too much for what it is worth - it should be simple and transparent).

How does one go about getting a SIM card when they travel with an iPad then?

I'm about to say suck it Apple for providing me with an unlocked phone I can't use and AT&T for this exclusivity and contract crap and possibly signing a contract with AT&T to allow this crap.

Is there a way to do this?

 

[ashman70]

I was down in Florida in Dec with my unlocked iphone 4 and this is what I did. Bought an ATT micro sim off Ebay, when I got down there I had to call ATT and give them my IMEI number so they could register my phone on the network, then it worked. I bought prepaid voice minutes and the 100MB of data, it lasted me the week, I used it for some casual browsing and email. You should have no problems.

AM

 

[bolmsted]

I was down in Florida in Dec with my unlocked iphone 4 and this is what I did. Bought an ATT micro sim off Ebay, when I got down there I had to call ATT and give them my IMEI number so they could register my phone on the network, then it worked. I bought prepaid voice minutes and the 100MB of data, it lasted me the week, I used it for some casual browsing and email. You should have no problems.

AM

Thanks AM, but can i buy one from AT&T or BestBuy, etc down there and then just activate it there rather than ebay? I'm assuming that your SIM card wasn't activated? I don't know if I have enough time to get one from eBay and whether to trust said and to avoid S&H if I can just buy it down there.

I guess you didn't indicate it was an iPhone as I think they want to put you on a contract at that point?