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iPhone [Merged] iPhone Users with T-Mobile Service (USA)

t-mobile sim

what process do i need to go through to get a sim card for an 1st gen iPhone. I have the iphone and know how to unlock it. I just need some guidance on getting the sim and which plans are currently working. Also any advice on data plans??

Thanks in advance
 
Hi Everyone, I read this thread and just wanted to make sure everything was okay before buying... very excited!

I have T-Mobile currently using a Blackberry curve with no data plan, unlimited text, and my 5 favs. I would not want to change the plan, and would like to do the same with the iphone:

1. Use for calls (I understand that it doesn't support 5 favs with icons, but with customer service or managing online, you can still use 5 favs?)

2. Use for texting

3. Use wifi for web browsing, no data

From reading this tread, and other posts, I'm getting mixed reviews about the iphone without data plan... can everyone please confirm the about 3 is good to go under Tmobile? :eek:
 
As I understand, you're right about My Faves. I think you can continue to manage it via the web (or if you keep a T-Mo phone that supports it around, I guess you could swap the SIM in and change it), and you still get the free calls to the faves on the iPhone even though you call them normally.

Texting... I'm not sure there was a question there. Yes, the iPhone will do texting on T-Mobile, without a data plan. Time will tell whether you find texting on an iPhone more pleasant than on a BB (I think the BB was honestly better for that).

With respect to the data, it will generally work, but I do think you'll miss data on the iPhone much more than you'll miss it on the Blackberry (although I already would have considered my BB too big and bulky by far and a waste if I did not have e-mail on it).
 
mkrishnan said:
As I understand, you're right about My Faves. I think you can continue to manage it via the web (or if you keep a T-Mo phone that supports it around, I guess you could swap the SIM in and change it), and you still get the free calls to the faves on the iPhone even though you call them normally.

Texting... I'm not sure there was a question there. Yes, the iPhone will do texting on T-Mobile, without a data plan. Time will tell whether you find texting on an iPhone more pleasant than on a BB (I think the BB was honestly better for that).

With respect to the data, it will generally work, but I do think you'll miss data on the iPhone much more than you'll miss it on the Blackberry (although I already would have considered my BB too big and bulky by far and a waste if I did not have e-mail on it).
Click to expand...

No question on the texting, just mentioning the usage. I know I'll definitely miss the data more on the iphone, but I just can't give into the price of the data plans.

I would use wifi for my internet browsing - I have wifi at home and at school... You can enable the phone for wifi browsing only?
 
internet2.voicestream.com
epc.tmobile.com
wap.voicestream.com

They all work for me but it seems after tonights tests on the speedtest app in the itunes store , it seems that works best and fastest for me.

The t-mobile rep I spoke to on the phone not too long ago (2 weeks) gave me that address. I knew of it beforehand as the epc.tmobile.com didnt work for me before.

Cool to know there are a few to choose from. If I were everyone I would go ahead and get the speedtest app and play around and see what pulls the best results. I would try it for a few days....also speedtest saves your results automatically....VERY nice!
 
Unspeaked said:
Yes, you can.
Click to expand...

Okay, so I got the phone unlocked it and have been experimenting with it. I'm in iphone love at the moment, if it weren't for these issues and questions... :eek:

1. The new voicemail icon (round red dot) appears as if I have a new voicemail but I've checked several times and I don't. I even rebooted, and stuck the sim card back into my blackberry which didn't have the voicemail icon. Weird. Anyone have any suggestions? This is my most pressing issues, it is quiet annoying.

2. I don't have the data plan, which I'm assuming will just block the data. I tried going onto Safari and it says that I didn't have the cellular network or something like that. After enabling wifi, I can now browse the web, which would be free... I will probably call T-Mobile tomorrow just to make sure that data is blocked and I'm not pulling any data.

3. The mail app... I used this to set up with my gmail account. Pretty cool and it works. So I can use this app with wifi? It will just scan for new email when I'm in a hotspot? (The reason why I ask is, when using the blackberry, to use any of its applications, like mail, because of it's "push" nature, it would only work with a data plan) I want to be able to continue to use the mail app, just not with the expense of $ and data plan.

4. When I use the installer, Cydia, App store, or download anything over the air with Safari for a new program or a game, will it use wifi when connected?

5. The 'E' sometimes appears and is replaced by the wifi signal. Anything to worry about?
 
dorqiekat said:
Okay, so I got the phone unlocked it and have been experimenting with it. I'm in iphone love at the moment, if it weren't for these issues and questions... :eek:
Click to expand...


1. The new voicemail icon (round red dot) appears as if I have a new voicemail but I've checked several times and I don't. I even rebooted, and stuck the sim card back into my blackberry which didn't have the voicemail icon. Weird. Anyone have any suggestions? This is my most pressing issues, it is quiet annoying.
Click to expand...


Yeah, annoying. If you check your voicemail and hangup, the dot will go away but seems to always come back when i have no voicemail. Annoying but i can live with it. I hardly get voicemails anyways. Mostly texts.

2. I don't have the data plan, which I'm assuming will just block the data. I tried going onto Safari and it says that I didn't have the cellular network or something like that. After enabling wifi, I can now browse the web, which would be free... I will probably call T-Mobile tomorrow just to make sure that data is blocked and I'm not pulling any data.
Click to expand...

Yep, no data plan, you wont get email and anything else if out of wi-fi range.

3. The mail app... I used this to set up with my gmail account. Pretty cool and it works. So I can use this app with wifi? It will just scan for new email when I'm in a hotspot? (The reason why I ask is, when using the blackberry, to use any of its applications, like mail, because of it's "push" nature, it would only work with a data plan) I want to be able to continue to use the mail app, just not with the expense of $ and data plan.
Click to expand...

Yep, will work when around a wi-fi connection and will scan for new mail when you open your mail with the icon and will receive automatically when around a wi-fi connection but you have to connect to one.

4. When I use the installer, Cydia, App store, or download anything over the air with Safari for a new program or a game, will it use wifi when connected?
Click to expand...

Yes

5. The 'E' sometimes appears and is replaced by the wifi signal. Anything to worry about?
Click to expand...


No
 
Thanks, I'm trying to figure out what works with data and what works with wifi. There were so many restrictions with blackberry and t-mobile with what would be charged and what was free when using wifi. Some apps wouldn't even work without a data plan...

But I downloaded a bunch of free games and I'm loving the iphone! The iphone is much favorable without data than the blackberry.
 
I've been searching through all these pages, and I just have a couple of questions as I have an iPhone on the way for use with T-Mobile...

1. Does YouTube work without using any of those utilities floating around? (They appear only to be for 1.1.4 anyways)

2. Does setting up email accounts like GMail and Yahoo work? (Once again, all user issues with this appear to be outdated, see below)

3. Are there any other caveats? I understand what needs to be done with the data plan and Visual Voicemail does not work. Is the Voicemail badge issue one that affects everyone? Anything similar to this that occurs?

Thanks in advance for your responses. I am assuming questions 1 and 2 are a non-issue post 2.0 update as they opened it up to include iPod Touch devices (which should have also made it available for unlocked/jailbroken iPhones).
 
hurrikenux said:
I've been searching through all these pages, and I just have a couple of questions as I have an iPhone on the way for use with T-Mobile...

1. Does YouTube work without using any of those utilities floating around? (They appear only to be for 1.1.4 anyways)

2. Does setting up email accounts like GMail and Yahoo work? (Once again, all user issues with this appear to be outdated, see below)

3. Are there any other caveats? I understand what needs to be done with the data plan and Visual Voicemail does not work. Is the Voicemail badge issue one that affects everyone? Anything similar to this that occurs?

Thanks in advance for your responses. I am assuming questions 1 and 2 are a non-issue post 2.0 update as they opened it up to include iPod Touch devices (which should have also made it available for unlocked/jailbroken iPhones).
Click to expand...

I don't know about any issues with the T-Zones hack kind of things, if people are even able to get those plans on new accounts, but otherwise...

1) Yes, Youtube is fine.

2) Yes, e-mail is all fine, now including even Hotmail, as they have added Hotmail POP access.

3) The voicemail badge issue, AFAIK, affects everyone. I'm not aware of any other issues.
 
Does the badge issue persist only when listening to voicemail and not deleting it? I guess the question is, I never save any voicemails - will the badge persist if it is completely deleted?

I am a long time T-Mobile account holder, I don't think I could ever leave with the quality of their customer service and the friendliness of their staff. We had the original T-Zones, but I know it is really only intended for wap - with the downloading I may end up doing I'll need the internet plan.

Thanks, guys and gals!
 
hurrikenux said:
Does the badge issue persist only when listening to voicemail and not deleting it? I guess the question is, I never save any voicemails - will the badge persist if it is completely deleted?

I am a long time T-Mobile account holder, I don't think I could ever leave with the quality of their customer service and the friendliness of their staff. We had the original T-Zones, but I know it is really only intended for wap - with the downloading I may end up doing I'll need the internet plan.

Thanks, guys and gals!
Click to expand...

The badge problem for me was solved by me getting a new SIM card from T-Mobile, Now the iPhone will only show the Voicemail badge when I actually have a voicemail.

I use the T-Mobile total internet plan for $25, it works great with the iPhone, and in Arizona, T-Mobile has better coverage than AT&T, believe it or not. I was on the bus, and a person next to me has an iPhone 3G on AT&T, with a slither of "service bars", while I had full service.
 
3g

Hey,

To save everyone the drama, I know that tmo's 3g network is a different frequency than at&t, so therefore, an iphone 3g on tmobile will not be able to use 3g. So you don't have to explain that here, everyone knows it.

Here's my question...Is there a way? Lol, I know what I said is counterintuitive, but idk, does anyone know of a cydia app that can change the radio waves for it? or something? I would love to be able to get 3g speeds.

Sorry for my idiocy, I know its a dumb question, but I'm 17 and optimistic. LOL

Thanks in advance!
 
..

Well here is the kicker.

I went to my local tmobile store and asked them essentially the same question. But different.

Europe or Australia (one or both of them have tmobile as the leading cellular company, therefore, tmobile sells iphones. maybe its neither and its some other place, forgive me. I know tmobile sells Iphones somewhere...) anyways, Europe or Australia or somewhere else sell iphones and iphone 3g's for tmobile. This means that they CAN use tmobile's 3g network. The phones are 'factory unlocked', I guess you could say, for tmobile. The same tmobile 3g that is here in the USA.

Now, I asked the tmo people and he explained that there is no 'frequency difference' (tmobile 3g being at a 1700 freq and att being at a 1800 freq). He said they share the same frequency and that really, att and tmobile share network towers and bounce communication channels and blah blah blah-stuff that I didn't really understand or care about. lol I'm only 17, give me a break! lol

Anyway, he said that it had NOTHING to do with the antenna in the iphone. If I went to europe or australia, being a tmo customer, I could get 3g speeds. He said that the problem in america is that att put a code on their 3g network so that if you are an att customer, your att iphone 3g will 'decode' the waves of the 3g data enabling 3g speeds on your phone. What he told me is essentially this: If someone out there can figure out that code, and you are using an att iphone 3g on tmobile in the usa, you can get 3g. So if the geniuses who do all the code breaking hacking stuff (yes he said that) make a program that continuously cracks the the att code, you can enable 3g on your iphone.

So my next question is how come no one is trying to break that code? I know that it is probably extremely hard, but there are so many geniuses out there. I'm optimistic enough to hope that it can be done! lol

Sorry if that was really confusing; I tried to explain it but I don't know how well I did.

Thanks for the help.
 
If you can get it working, more power to you. You will make many people happy.

However, in the 99.9% chance that that is a fantasy and you live in reality... :p

- There is no magic AT&T code.

- T-Mobile USA and AT&T USA use the same GSM and EDGE frequencies -- that's not under dispute. They do not use the same 3G frequencies.

- T-Mobile in Europe and elsewhere generally uses the same / most-common 3G frequencies as everyone else. THERE. It's only T-Mobile in the USA that has the less common 3G frequencies. Saying that the T-Mobile European phone shares 3G frequencies with the other European operators, and therefore you should be able to use an iPhone on T-Mobile's USA network is like saying that in Europe, there are diesel BMW's, so you should be able to put diesel in your US-bought BMW.

Good luck. I don't want to argue the point with you. But I seriously doubt that really anything you were told or want to believe from those T-Mobile reps is actually true.
 
Thank you

Please, do not think I was arguing or intended to argue. By no means were my intentions to argue. I'm not an 'iphone CAN work on sprint and verizon' person. I know all the stuff they would have to do to make it actually work would be literally impossible-what, with reformatting the entire operating system and flashing and flexing and a bunch of other stuff that I have no idea what it means/is.

I was simply proposing a question...that probably didn't sound like a question because it was just so random lol, but you did a magnificent job answering it. I was just given one side to the story; I wanted to know if there were more than one!

I do have to give some credit to the tmobile reps-and not because of this 3g business, but when I got my first iphone (first gen), I called customer care and low and behold, it was a TMO REP who told me he had an iphone himself. He also told me to get the tzones web, download that cydia tweak and put in the epc. A TMO REP!!! I was so surprised and thats when I truly loved tmo more than att (because att's customer care is awful). I apologize if anyone here works as one, but you probably arent doing a very good job. (Every time I go in, they essentially tell me to leave! For all they know, I want to drop $800 on a new phone/plan/accessories...but I don't). Any way.

I wasn't trying to argue and I apologize if it seemed that way.

Thank you for your help though!

-C
 
Haha, you don't have to apologize. I just think the things they told you about 3G are all wrong. :p The situation is very complicated, though, and I could see their misunderstanding. Some of them are very nice... it's just that they do sometimes have a tendency to make stuff up if you give them the opportunity.

EDIT: And for what it works, it rubs the other way:

http://modmygphone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4751

Although that thread mentioned that Europe increasingly uses 2100 MHz, and I think that part is another misunderstanding... if you look at this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMTS_frequency_bands

AT&T in the USA uses Band 1 (1900 for upload and 2100 for download); T-Mobile in the USA only uses Band 5 (1700 for upload and 2100 for download), I think. The problem lies in the incompatible uplink frequency.

I think there now are a small number of quad-band devices that support uplink at both 1700 and 1900; those devices would work on either AT&T or T-Mobile USA -- there's a list of some here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_band#3G

The iPhone isn't one of them.
 
HI all,

Tried to keep up with the posts.

I am currently a sprint user, but want to get the Iphone. I plan to get a cheap tmobile plan cause 70+ bucks at at&t is kinda pricey.

My question for all you is

what plans are you using? voice, text, and data, to get all the nice things working on the iphone. and how much is it costing a month?

thanks,

mike
 
skyhound said:
Hey guys, I have an iphone working on T-mobile, with voice and Wifi, but I can't get EDGE to work. I added "Total Internet" for $19.99 and they said it will take up to 48 hours to be added, but it's been longer than that and it still says "You are not subscribed to Edge" when I try to access the Internet.

I called TMO and they gave me the AP to enter, but when I try to enter it on the iPhone settings it never saves it, and thus doesn't work.

Help!! The iPhone is great but without EDGE I can't use most the features unless I'm at home.


Tom
Click to expand...

go to settings,go to network,go to edge,apn enter epc.tmobile.com,leave username blank,leave password blank,and thats all there is to it.
 
tmobile edge settings

go to settings,go to network,go to edge,apn enter epc.tmobile.com,leave username blank,leave password blank,and thats all there is to it.
 
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