iPhone without a data plan - sneaky or legit?

[Analog]

My brother has an iPhone thru AT&T. Last December he upgraded his iPhone 3 to the 4S. His wife had a non-data phone on AT&T (not sure which one).

So he takes out the SIM card from the non-data phone and puts it into the old iPhone 3. Now his wife has an iPhone on the other phone's plan (without the data charges).

Of course she can't surf the web on 3G, but whenever she's in wifi range she can. Still can call / text etc.

Damn, I wish the Verizon phones could do this too - I would jump on this in a minute. And don't tell me a smartphone without a data plan is a waste. I'd bet there are a lot of people like me that would do something like this if we could.. :awe:

 

[SpatiallyAware]

AT&T does random occasional comparisons between sim card plans and imei numbers, and will eventually catch on to it. I give him 2-3 weeks max before he gets a txt that a data plan is required.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

AT&T does IMEI sweeps and will be adding the data plan on, as a courtesy to the customer. They may get lucky for a while though.

Personally, I think it SHOULD be legit to do this, especially if the contract subsidy has already been repaid. Unfortunately, it isn't.

 

[rudder]

AT&T does random occasional comparisons between sim card plans and imei numbers, and will eventually catch on to it. I give him 2-3 weeks max before he gets a txt that a data plan is required.

or AT&T will just start charging for a data plan without notifying you. My daughter used my wife OLD samsung blackjack and at&t threw on a data plan to her 9.99/month charge.

 

[ponyo]

Data plan will be automatically added and charged. Count on it. At&t has the iPhone IMEI. Sorry op.

 

[Analog]

AT&T does random occasional comparisons between sim card plans and imei numbers, and will eventually catch on to it. I give him 2-3 weeks max before he gets a txt that a data plan is required.

ITs been since December and he's in the clear afaik. We'll see..

 

[T_Yamamoto]

My friends been using his Atrix with AT&T and has a crap phone as well, he switched ocassionally depending on where hes going.

pretty much, hes either really lucky or smart

 

[rsutoratosu]

I been using my iphone 4 on the at&t go phone plan without data plan for months, if I need data, ill buy a cheap 100mb pack for the week or something... I have wifi at home and work, dont have much use for data plan while driving

 

[gorcorps]

Not sneaky, they will be paying an extra $25 a month here shortly. Hope they're ready for it as people who tried the same thing in the past were not asked to add it, it just happened.

 

[kyrax12]

I heard you can have an Iphone without a dataplan if you jailbreak or something.

Lol at people saying they are adding a dataplan as a courtesy for the customer...

 

[alent1234]

i've read about this on macrumors for years. AT&T has done sweeps in the past and will send you a text and add the data plan to your bill.

all kinds of reasons why they haven't done it yet. they are in the middle of an upgrade and might be in the process of migrating all batch jobs to the new systems

 

[WelshBloke]

Its pretty out of order that they will charge him for data when hes not using any and he provided his own phone.

 

[alent1234]

here in the US in the last decade carriers had to deal with a lot of people trying to get out of huge cell phone bills by lying that they didn't call anyone. i've seen the ghetto superstars doing this

until the iphone data was sold on a per MB basis and carriers had the same thing. except in this case they would mostly accidentally use data by hitting the wrong button on their phone.

requiring a data plan for a phone that is meant to use data is a cheap way to avoid a customer service nightmare

 

[Analog]

I been using my iphone 4 on the at&t go phone plan without data plan for months, if I need data, ill buy a cheap 100mb pack for the week or something... I have wifi at home and work, dont have much use for data plan while driving

I'm not sure I understand. what is the go phone plan?

 

[WelshBloke]

here in the US in the last decade carriers had to deal with a lot of people trying to get out of huge cell phone bills by lying that they didn't call anyone. i've seen the ghetto superstars doing this

until the iphone data was sold on a per MB basis and carriers had the same thing. except in this case they would mostly accidentally use data by hitting the wrong button on their phone.

requiring a data plan for a phone that is meant to use data is a cheap way to avoid a customer service nightmare

So instead of charging crooks and idiots they charge everybody?

That sounds reasonable.

 

[tdawg]

Its pretty out of order that they will charge him for data when hes not using any and he provided his own phone.

AT&T added a data plan to my mom's bill automatically. She's using an ancient Samsung Blackjack that my brother had in the closet after her previous phone broke. She barely knows how to send a text message, let alone use any data-related services. Yet AT&T just added it anyway because it's a smartphone.

We still need to go into an AT&T store and "discuss" this with someone.

 

[uhohs]

ITs been since December and he's in the clear afaik. We'll see..

I thought I was in the clear too after 1 1/2 years, but they got me a few weeks ago. :~

 

[alent1234]

So instead of charging crooks and idiots they charge everybody?

That sounds reasonable.

the crooks and idiots mean you have to hire more people for customer service. charging everyone is cheaper

 

[WelshBloke]

the crooks and idiots mean you have to hire more people for customer service. charging everyone is cheaper

Not for your customers it isn't. (well the ones who aren't crooks or idiots anyways).

 

[alent1234]

if they hired more service people they would have to charge more to pay these people. a customer service rep is close to $100,000 per year for salary, medical, taxes and other costs

 

[WelshBloke]

if they hired more service people they would have to charge more to pay these people. a customer service rep is close to $100,000 per year for salary, medical, taxes and other costs

It would not cost the 10 to 15 dollars a month per customer for a start.

How do you think the rest of the world manages?

 

[vshah]

switch her to TMO if you're not on contract and have good coverage.

 

[GTRagnarok]

I've been on ATT's pay as you go (GoPhone) service with my iPhone 4 for about a year now. Don't really need data since my campus has Wifi throughout.

 

[destrekor]

My mom would be in the best situation if she could have a smartphone that didn't have data. Act like a super-awesome dumbphone the majority of the time (voice, sms/mms - all she really uses), and still have data capability (wifi) when in-range.

She really just wants a big screen for better viewing of mobile photos (sis sends photos of nephew all the time), but isn't a big gadget and web user.

Here's to hoping Verizon's shared data plans are actually good, and work with our family shared plan. I refuse to give up my grandfathered unlimited, so... we'll see how that all plays out.

 

[kyrax12]

I heard you can call in and report your phone stolen to have your data plan remove after that u can jailbreak your iPhone to put your phone on stealth so at&t can't find out u r using a smartphone
At least this. Is what I heard.