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Prepaid iphone?!

A

akeyo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 10, 2009
9
0
Hey! I have a question right now i have a prepaid blackberry pearl with 100mb data. I popped my sim card into my friends iphone 3gs i was able to make calls ( an error would pop up saying im not subscribed to this service but the call would go through) And send texts same thing the error would pop up...

But i would click internet and it would give same error but wouldnt load the page up or anything...


My question is if i UNLOCK an iphone and jailbreak or somehting is there anything i can do to make it work with MY PREPAID at&t sim card???


Thanks so much
 
unlocking ur iphone is only to get the phone to work on other gsm networks such as t-mobile, rogers, o2, orange, etc. any standard at&t sim card will work on a locked iphone. unlocking an iphone does not allow you to get internet, it just allows u to use their services. u have to pay a bill to use that. u can try wifi?
 
???

did you not read anything i said???


I DO pay for internet and i DO have att im wondering if unlocking it will let me use my NOT unlimited internet with the iphone...
 
akeyo said:
did you not read anything i said???


I DO pay for internet and i DO have att im wondering if unlocking it will let me use my NOT unlimited internet with the iphone...
Click to expand...
Apparently it is you that didn't read the replies.

Your iPhone should read all AT&T sims without being JB and UL.

The Data plan is apparently not compatible with the iPhone.

Unlocking will not make the phone read the sim any better.
 
I never said read the sim better all i am wondeirng is ovbiously att has a lock so that prepaid plans wont work on the iphone....



(ALL other att phones work on prepaid EXEPT the iphone even the smartphones work)

So by unlocking it i wanted to know if that could remove that limitation att has.
 
akeyo said:
I never said read the sim better all i am wondeirng is ovbiously att has a lock so that prepaid plans wont work on the iphone....



(ALL other att phones work on prepaid EXEPT the iphone even the smartphones work)

So by unlocking it i wanted to know if that could remove that limitation att has.
Click to expand...

If you read a bit, you will find that many posters report using pre-paid AT&T sims with no unlocking needed on iPhones (for calls & texts)
 
akeyo said:
I never said read the sim better all i am wondeirng is ovbiously att has a lock so that prepaid plans wont work on the iphone....



(ALL other att phones work on prepaid EXEPT the iphone even the smartphones work)

So by unlocking it i wanted to know if that could remove that limitation att has.
Click to expand...


That's false. AT&T does not have any locks or anything on prepaid sims. It's just your data account is incompatible.
Unlocking it will not change anything besides making it able to use a non AT&T simcard.
 
All you need to be able to use another phones sim with data in the iPhone is a customized APN such as BENM one linked above. It won't matter what kind of AT&T data plan it is, it will work on the iPhone with the APN. Otherwise, 3.0+ disables data on non official iPhone data plans. Blackberry internet will still work, the only thing that won't is email. Since email goes through the BIS, it is not capable on the iPhone. You can still set up other email accounts though and they will work such as Gmail. I used a BB sim in my iPhone about a year ago and so I know how they work on the iPhone.

Any AT&T sim card with activate an iPhone, even if it's prepaid. I was using a Pick Your Plan sim with unlimited MEdia Net in my 3G iPhone for the past seven months with no problems.
 
Applejuiced said:
That's false. AT&T does not have any locks or anything on prepaid sims.
Click to expand...
I thought I'd read that if you purchase a prepaid phone bundled with a bonus airtime credit, AT&T will put a time-limited lock on your account so that it would only work in the phone with which it was activated for the first few months -- after that it will be allowed to work in any phone.

I don't mean to disagree with the general meaning of what you were saying; I just think there are some outlying cases which are exceptions to the rule.
 
goosnarrggh said:
I thought I'd read that if you purchase a prepaid phone bundled with a bonus airtime credit, AT&T will put a time-limited lock on your account so that it would only work in the phone with which it was activated for the first few months -- after that it will be allowed to work in any phone.

I don't mean to disagree with the general meaning of what you were saying; I just think there are some outlying cases which are exceptions to the rule.
Click to expand...

Well I can confirm this because stupid me did this. I'm going to return the airtime bonus go phone to walmart later today and just go to att. I wish the data plans were mre than 100mb though! Still this is a good option to what I was looking for on my 3gs. I just want data on it.
 
goosnarrggh said:
I thought I'd read that if you purchase a prepaid phone bundled with a bonus airtime credit, AT&T will put a time-limited lock on your account so that it would only work in the phone with which it was activated for the first few months -- after that it will be allowed to work in any phone.

I don't mean to disagree with the general meaning of what you were saying; I just think there are some outlying cases which are exceptions to the rule.
Click to expand...

All you have to do to get around the six month GoPhone/sim lock is to use a sim other than the one the GoPhone came with. You won't get the bonus minutes but at least you can use the sim in an iPhone.
 
goosnarrggh said:
I thought I'd read that if you purchase a prepaid phone bundled with a bonus airtime credit, AT&T will put a time-limited lock on your account so that it would only work in the phone with which it was activated for the first few months -- after that it will be allowed to work in any phone.

I don't mean to disagree with the general meaning of what you were saying; I just think there are some outlying cases which are exceptions to the rule.
Click to expand...

Yes, I forgot about that.
Theres ways getting around this issue also but unlocking has nothing to do with it.
 
Got a new prepaid sim card from AT&T and added $25 to it. Applied the new carrier settings from the link I posted above and it works :)

Awesome!
 
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