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ericmjl

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 3, 2006
88
0
Hey guys, is it possible to use the iPhone 4 as a data-only device in the USA? I was hoping to use only the 3G connection without subscribing to a phone plan, as I hardly ever use the phone...
 

SirithX

macrumors 6502
Feb 21, 2007
431
132
San Francisco
You may as well just get an iPad, or iPod Touch. Unless you want the phone but with data so you can keep using things like Google Voice for free, which is an excellent idea but AT&T won't allow it.
 

ericmjl

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 3, 2006
88
0
You may as well just get an iPad, or iPod Touch. Unless you want the phone but with data so you can keep using things like Google Voice for free, which is an excellent idea but AT&T won't allow it.

I have an iPad already, but I was thinking that I would get the iPhone and then use Line2 with the 2GB iPad data plan to save costs on my phone bill. It'd then be $(25+10)/month to have unlimited voice calling, unlimited texting, and 2GB of data. Someone did it before, but I don't know how to get the iPad data plan working on the iPhone.
 

ryohazuki222

macrumors newbie
Nov 26, 2010
4
0
I registered just to post a response on here in hopes that you can let me know how things work if you get things working.

http://hijinksinc.com/2010/07/08/activating-an-ipad-3g-micro-sim-without-an-ipad/

^go there and start from step 3 since you already have an ipad. The only thing I'm unsure of right now is if it's possible to do this yet on iOS 4.2

I haven't done it myself, but my plan with verizon ends in a few weeks and im sick of the android fragmentation going on and found out that im a crazy awesome typer on an iphone. initially i didnt even care about voice, but line2 seems like a pretty good deal nonetheless. so any feedback on how that works through the data only connection would be greatly appreciated!
 

ericmjl

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 3, 2006
88
0
I registered just to post a response on here in hopes that you can let me know how things work if you get things working.

http://hijinksinc.com/2010/07/08/activating-an-ipad-3g-micro-sim-without-an-ipad/

^go there and start from step 3 since you already have an ipad. The only thing I'm unsure of right now is if it's possible to do this yet on iOS 4.2

I haven't done it myself, but my plan with verizon ends in a few weeks and im sick of the android fragmentation going on and found out that im a crazy awesome typer on an iphone. initially i didnt even care about voice, but line2 seems like a pretty good deal nonetheless. so any feedback on how that works through the data only connection would be greatly appreciated!

So, I managed to get it to work, just as expected. It's working just beautifully!
 

ryohazuki222

macrumors newbie
Nov 26, 2010
4
0
Sounds great! If you don't mind answering a few questions about your set up... I have a few.

How exactly did you activate your data only sim for your iphone? I'm well aware of the process of doing it, but what I mean is more like.... Do you have an ipad 3g? (I'm assuming you do) are you now paying two seperate data plans to ATT or are you sharing one microsim between the two? If you have to data only sims, are you using the same imei from your ipad for each without problems?

If you care why I ask....
I'm asking because I ordered my data only sim yesterday, and looking to buy an iPhone this week. I DO NOT own an iPad. I was planning on spoofing the ipad browser with a firefox extension and using the iphone imei with the sim. HOWEVER I read just yesterday several reports of people being dropped this week who didn't have a legit ipad imei. The confirmed and easiest solution is to go to an apple store or something and just find some imei number and use that since they shouldnt be activated. I'm trying to prepare my self for things that can go wrong, and right now the question I'm trying to answer is if it's possible to use the same ipad imei on more than one data sim. Common sense would lead to "why not" since if they allowed that, they'd effectively allow themselves to make twice as much money off every ipad. But really would like some first hand experience to confirm or dismiss this possibility.
 

ericmjl

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 3, 2006
88
0
Sounds great! If you don't mind answering a few questions about your set up... I have a few.

How exactly did you activate your data only sim for your iphone? I'm well aware of the process of doing it, but what I mean is more like.... Do you have an ipad 3g? (I'm assuming you do) are you now paying two seperate data plans to ATT or are you sharing one microsim between the two? If you have to data only sims, are you using the same imei from your ipad for each without problems?

If you care why I ask....
I'm asking because I ordered my data only sim yesterday, and looking to buy an iPhone this week. I DO NOT own an iPad. I was planning on spoofing the ipad browser with a firefox extension and using the iphone imei with the sim. HOWEVER I read just yesterday several reports of people being dropped this week who didn't have a legit ipad imei. The confirmed and easiest solution is to go to an apple store or something and just find some imei number and use that since they shouldnt be activated. I'm trying to prepare my self for things that can go wrong, and right now the question I'm trying to answer is if it's possible to use the same ipad imei on more than one data sim. Common sense would lead to "why not" since if they allowed that, they'd effectively allow themselves to make twice as much money off every ipad. But really would like some first hand experience to confirm or dismiss this possibility.

I do have an iPad 3G, which helps a lot - I first activated the SIM card on my iPad (via a WiFi connection), and then swapped the SIM card to my iPhone 4. Now, my iPhone uses the iPad SIM card, while the iPad remains SIM-less. I haven't had a chance to try moving the SIM card back to the iPad, so I'm not sure how to make it work back there.
 

ryohazuki222

macrumors newbie
Nov 26, 2010
4
0
Thanks again for the info. If by any chance you end up getting another ipad microsim so you have 3g on both your ipad and phone on the same ipad imei, let me know if it works! ;)
 

bwrairen

macrumors 6502
Jun 23, 2010
345
2
I do have an iPad 3G, which helps a lot - I first activated the SIM card on my iPad (via a WiFi connection), and then swapped the SIM card to my iPhone 4. Now, my iPhone uses the iPad SIM card, while the iPad remains SIM-less. I haven't had a chance to try moving the SIM card back to the iPad, so I'm not sure how to make it work back there.

Just pop it in the iPad. It doesn't require any changes.
 

3rdparty

macrumors newbie
Oct 19, 2008
15
0
I do have an iPad 3G, which helps a lot - I first activated the SIM card on my iPad (via a WiFi connection), and then swapped the SIM card to my iPhone 4. Now, my iPhone uses the iPad SIM card, while the iPad remains SIM-less. I haven't had a chance to try moving the SIM card back to the iPad, so I'm not sure how to make it work back there.


Curious if you're AT&T iPad SIM is still working fine in your iPhone. My concern with the latest crackdown was that AT&T would somehow block non-iPad IMEI's from using the data plan.

I'm planning to re-activate an AT&T microsim that I used in August with my iPhone. Hoping that AT&T didn't blacklist it since it was quite some time ago, but I did originally use a Nokia-generated IMEI
 

mikelegacy

macrumors 65816
Dec 5, 2010
1,138
0
Pittsburgh, PA
You may as well just get an iPad, or iPod Touch. Unless you want the phone but with data so you can keep using things like Google Voice for free, which is an excellent idea but AT&T won't allow it.
Couldn't do this anyways, as you have to have a phone number for Google Voice to redirect your calls to.
 
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