Activate w/ iTunes but use Pay-as-you-go?

[rajid]

I've been reading a lot about different methods of activation on an iPhone and I'm wondering if there's some validity to a method I've come up with here:

1) buy your new iPhone and connect to iTunes as directed
2) type in "999-99-9999" as your SS# so you're offered the choose-you-plan
option. (This gets you a month-by-month play with no 2 yr contract)
3) type in your credit card information to setup the month-by-month plan

This should complete full, normal, activation of your iPhone. Now...

4) swap the SIM in your iPhone with the SIM from your cheapo AT&T pay-as-you-go cheap phone.

Now you have a pay-as-you-go and fully activated iPhone!

(As a data point for this, let me mention that I activated my iPhone using the "jailbreakme.com" method and after having done so, I simply inserted my pay-as-you-go SIM and it's working just fine!)

Yes, this only works if you have a pay-as-you-go account with AT&T, but I do and I'm fine with that.

Am I missing something?

Of course, the next question is can I pay an extra $20/month on my pay-as-you-go account in order to get unlimited data?

 

[CrockettGTO]

I've been reading a lot about different methods of activation on an iPhone and I'm wondering if there's some validity to a method I've come up with here:

1) buy your new iPhone and connect to iTunes as directed
2) type in "999-99-9999" as your SS# so you're offered the choose-you-plan
option. (This gets you a month-by-month play with no 2 yr contract)
3) type in your credit card information to setup the month-by-month plan

This should complete full, normal, activation of your iPhone. Now...

4) swap the SIM in your iPhone with the SIM from your cheapo AT&T pay-as-you-go cheap phone.

Now you have a pay-as-you-go and fully activated iPhone!

(As a data point for this, let me mention that I activated my iPhone using the "jailbreakme.com" method and after having done so, I simply inserted my pay-as-you-go SIM and it's working just fine!)

Yes, this only works if you have a pay-as-you-go account with AT&T, but I do and I'm fine with that.

Am I missing something?

Of course, the next question is can I pay an extra $20/month on my pay-as-you-go account in order to get unlimited data?

You will not be able to use the 9's trick any more, or all 1's either. I just tried all of these two days ago with all the same #'s using iTunes, 7.5, and 7.4.1 (earliest version of iTunes that will work with the iPhone) and it didn't work. You will need to come up with something else.
Yes you can add MediaNet (data) for 19.99 a month. You can also add 200 SMS per month for 4.99.
You don't even need to swap the SIM card from your other phone, you can use the ATT one that came in the iPhone when you first bought it.

 

[rajid]

By the way, let me clarify in case someone comes across this thread later.

There are two different types of "Pay as you go" accounts at AT&T. There's the type which is used by iTunes when you fail the credit check. This is properly called a "Pay as you go - Pick your plan" account. You pay a set amount per month and they take the money directly from your credit card account. Then there's the cheapest "Pay as you go" account where you buy minutes. AT&T/iTunes doesn't let you sign up for the per minute version. This is the type of "Pay as you go" account I'm using with my Jailbroken 1.1.1 iPhone (and which my wife is now using with her Jailbroken 1.1.3 iPhone).

The reason this matters is that the $19.99/month unlimited data thing is not available on the cheapest "pay per minute" type of account. You do, however, have access to the Edge network and you simply pay per Kb instead. Since I'm almost always where there's a Wifi, I simply don't end up using either the phone of the Edge network much at all, but it's nice to have it available in case I really need to use it. AT&T is getting a lot more money from me these days than they used to, however!