iPhones for the unlucky?

[pdpfilms]

Howdy-
I'm a resident of Vermont and am attending school in Montana. Both states, unfortunately, are not areas that ATT covers. There is GSM service, but through other carriers. I've been thinking for a while about how I might be able to get an iPhone, and use it as my primary mobile. Here's what I've gathered.

The common misconception is that one could create an account with an out of state billing address. It's completely possible, but ATT only permits up to 40% of your minutes to be provided by partner towers. Therefore, those of us living in these states will get the boot unless we can manage to make calls in states other than VT and MT. This policy is in the agreement you sign with your 2-year contract.

What's the solution? Pre-paid plans. As far as I know (and I'm just learning about them), there is no long-term agreement. You buy your minutes for the month, and can do what you like after that.

Your thoughts? Might this method work?

 

[lofight]

maybe, but you can go ask at a att store.

 

[pdpfilms]

maybe, but you can go ask at a att store.

Unfortunately, every CSR I've spoken with has said something different, many of them giving me some iteration of "There's no way you're going to get an ATT account."

EDIT: Though this is a new concept, so it may not be a bad idea. The other issue is I can't go into an ATT store,as there isn't one for ~500 miles.

 

[mkrishnan]

I thought that you didn't get affiliate roaming with the GoPhone plans?

 

[ChandlerXJ]

wow i didn't know that you could only use 40% from other towers... I am the owner of my family line and I live in Philly, but my 3 sisters and parents live in Massachusetts - I'm getting dicked over!!!

 

[mkrishnan]

wow i didn't know that you could only use 40% from other towers... I am the owner of my family line and I live in Philly, but my 3 sisters and parents live in Massachusetts - I'm getting dicked over!!!

Wait, unless I misunderstand... you can use as much service on any AT&T tower as you want. You can only spend 40% of your time on towers that are not owned by AT&T. The only time that happens is when you're on the phone outside of AT&T's service area (e.g. if your phone says something other than AT&T on it, typically, like the name of some small wireless provider, this indicates that you're on a partner network). That's the only situation this applies to. As long as you're on AT&T's network, whether you're in Philadelphia or Boston is irrelevant.

 

[pdpfilms]

Wait, unless I misunderstand... you can use as much service on any AT&T tower as you want. You can only spend 40% of your time on towers that are not owned by AT&T. The only time that happens is when you're on the phone outside of AT&T's service area (e.g. if your phone says something other than AT&T on it, typically, like the name of some small wireless provider, this indicates that you're on a partner network). That's the only situation this applies to. As long as you're on AT&T's network, whether you're in Philadelphia or Boston is irrelevant.

This is right, sorry for the confusion.

 

[lofight]

EDIT: Though this is a new concept, so it may not be a bad idea. The other issue is I can't go into an ATT store,as there isn't one for ~500 miles.

Wow 500 miles, where do you live? or ar there just not many att stores in america? i don't know i live in europe... no iphone

 

[pdpfilms]

Wow 500 miles, where do you live? or ar there just not many att stores in america? i don't know i live in europe... no iphone

I live in western Montana, and the entire state is a hole in ATT's coverage... hence, no stores to serve the service-less.

 

[feelthefire]

Prepaid plans have no access to partner towers. They don't work in VT or MT.

That said, I was able to get at&t to open a blackberry plan with my vermont address and there wasn't a problem. However, they did terminate my service for using the phone on the network up there, which is old GPRS and belongs to either alltel or us cellular.