GoPhone - can SIM be used in iPhone or similar?

1. Yes.
2. Possibly — it definitely should if the iPhone is jailbroken
3. An AT&T iPhone will most likely not activate on the prepaid service, you need one that doesn't require activation
4. Skype for iPhone will work over WiFi, but not over the cell network. Unless the iPhone is jailbroken, that is
5. Almost any AT&T phone, except AT&T iPhone will work for voice and SMS using this SIM.

 

Hi Alan,

here's my take on a, b, c:

a: Jailbreaking is a DIY process, so this is true
b: I'm 99% sure this is true. Unless AT&T does something on the server end to actively block the combination of known iPhone IMEI & GoPhone account (1% accounts for this)
c: As long as iPhone without a SIM acts as an iPod Touch and not a dysfunctional GSM phone should be true as well.

Hopefully someone with an iPhone can confirm one way or another

 

I have an original iphone which I use on an at&t "pick-your-plan" account (autopay with credit card, but no contract).

My iphone is not jailbroken, nor unlocked.

I went to an at&t store, and they gave me a sim card (well, exchanged an old cingular sim that I had) for free.

 

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Yes but if at&t catches it will disable something. I think in a few months we will see the prepaid support back again as supplies increase One thing the op should never do is let at&t know that an iPhone us being used.

 

With respect, I doubt it. I added (with the help of at at&t rep) the iphone data plan, which shows up on my account page (on the pick-your-plan website); and I've had many conversations with at&t, discussing my service plan, including the iphone features on my account.

The only difference I know of with the 3G and 3G-S iphones is the price of the data plan is $10 more. The rules regarding use on prepaid plans (go phone) may be different for these phones, but I haven't heard about it.

IMHO, it seems that at&t is fine with iphones on prepaid plans, though they recommend the pick-your-plan (auto-recharge) plans instead of pay-as-you-go (manual recharge), due to the fact that on the latter, the unlimited data feature can must be added EACH MONTH (otherwise, you pay per KB).

 

if a phone is "SIM Locked" then the phone is only allowed to be used with a SIM card from the operator it is tied to (SOS calls can still be made with any or no SIM card). That is only done in the phone hardware, and no checks are made on the network to verify that. Altho a network operator can match your SIM card (IMSI) to phone type (IMEI) on the network side to restrict you to what device(s) you can use, I have never seen any do that, for whatever reason (too hard to keep track of, or too bothersome, maybe?) However based on hf1khal's post, ATT seems to "catch" pre-paid iPhone users when they call in for help the same way [/URL]how they "catch" smartphone users who don't have forced data plans. Which is a strange way of doing things...:headscrat

So, to make a long story short, if an iPhone is locked to ATT, you should be able to use any ATT SIM card in it (including pre-paid). If the iPhone is unlocked, you can use ANY SIM card in it (eg: T-Mobile, Rogers, etc.)

PS- "Jailbroken" is something unique to the iPhone, and only refers to games/programs that can be used on it, I beleive, but shouldn't have anything to do with what network it can be used on or not (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

 

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You are correct. Unlocking (depending on which iPhone one has) can be done via a software hack but that can be undone by an OS upgrade (the same for Jb and for it to be unlocked then it would have to be JB'd first) one would need to hold off from upgrading the software on the phone. There are iPhones that are factory unlocked (purchased from overseas at a high price) and those are ok for software upgrade. The OP, as mentioned, should be carefull and if the iPhone is not purchased yet then the OP should ask about the unlock and JB status

 

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Then youvare talking about the original iPhone. There was an at&t announcment that upgrading to 3.0 will not let the iPhone work as a gophone and the only ones that seem to work are the unlocked ones and if at&t catches it then they have the right to cut the service as it is part of the T&Cs.

 

Oh, so there's 2 ways you can remove the SIM lock on an iPhone? The "standard" factory unlock, where you key in a sequence of numbers given to you by the operator (who gets it from the device mfg) Or then to do a software hack?

 

Yes, but here in the US there is no such thing as a standard factory unlock as it will not be given by either at&t or Apple.

 

...oh, right, I forgot about the "exclusivity" contract between Apple and AT&T. So that means AT&T will never give unlock codes for iPhones, even after the subsidy period expires? (ie: normally 2 years)

...and all AT&T branded iPhones that are unlocked are done with a software hack? If so, then yea, one again the iPhone falls in a "unique" catagory of it's own

 

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Correct. But I also think that this all depends on the market it is being sold in and I'd the country laws requires that the sub unlock be made available free or with a charge. There are other countries that are like the US where the provider an Apple will not giv the sub code

 

Thanks for great explanation :thumb:

 

Yes, the previous poster mentioned the original iPhone. I'm not sure whether new activations with original iPhone are allowed on PYP or whether it is grandfathered in for those who had originally had them on PYP.

I haven't tried this since the original iPhone release, but I remember that you had to activate through iTunes before it started working. Swapping a different SIM in after activation would result in iPhone not working until the SIM that it was activated with was placed back in. Needless to say since the phone was locked we tried with two AT&T SIMs I *believe* the JB process would remove this restriction — but I can't vouch for it since we didn't JB the phone in question. I wouldn't be surprised if the new iPhones were still refusing non-iPhone SIMs. Can any non-JB iPhone owner try and confirm one way or another?

 

There is a way to JB without activation. This is done by putting the phone in DFU mode which then allows the install of the proper software for the jailbreak process and also involves having to put the phone in airplane mode as well as turning wifi on. The best place for tutorial on how to is to visit iClarified - Apple News and Tutorials and look under the iphone section.

 

I swapped the SIM from my Treo Pro with one from an IPhone 3G (non JB'ed), and both devices worked.

So I am presuming that means once an iPhone is activated it will work with a different SIM.

 

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Correct it does. I have had all my iPhones tried with other at&t sim and all worked including the normal voice mail. Visual will only work if the account is provisioned for an iPhone I only JB'd the iPhone so it can be unlocked and used when traveling overseas as I never saw the sense in having it sitting in a brief case for 5 months and not be used. That served me well by unlocking ad got more use of it than I do here at home

 

Thanks Charlyee. I wonder if we ran into a 1.0 problem or just did something wrong when trying it out, but we just couldn't get a non-iPhone SIM to work in the iPhone....

 

In the early days, a specific SIM was needed but since late lastyear that was changed as the SIMsbecame equal all over.

 

Thanks for clarification!

 

Those are all very good options imo. If I was in your situtaion I would go for the iTouch and keep using the Samy for voice.

I used a separate PDA and phone for a long time but finally got tired of carrying two devices all the time. The difference was I use my phone a lot and it is also the emergency contact number for work to get hold of me. Since in your case, the voice is not that important and you don't mind carrying two devices, the ITouch & Samy would work for you.

Keep us posted on what you decide to do,

Good luck.

 

The new iTouch was just announced yesterday. Too bad they didn't include the camera in this one. The next intro will have to wait till next year unless they introduce another version and sell them as one with camera and one without (which I doubt)

 

Hi Alan, glad it helped. There is another option that I didn't mention. If are you not hung up on getting an iTouch/iPhone, then you could get any unbranded SmartPhone w/WiFi that AT&T doesn't sell & use that as your combination device with the PrePay w/o subscribing to a data plan. The device will cost more since they are not subsidized but you will achieve the result.

Examples would be my Treo, dmapr's SE etc.

Just a thought

Palm850/v0100 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11)

 

Except dmapr's SE is not a SmartPhone nor does it have WiFi — never got the X1, you know

 

Hey, what do I know, considering I didn't remember exactly what model SE you had, notice how smoothly I referred to it as "dmapr's SE".

Yes, I remember, you never got the X! because it was not a true World Phone.

I stand corrected.

Thanks