T-mo sidekick PPD plan: step by step?

[rud3bwoy]

it works the only thing i notice every once in a while it will turn off and nothing will load and i have to restart the iphone 3g,happens maybe once a week,pretty sure that is a yellowsn0w glitch that needs to be fixed.

[michaeltwentyfour]

Hey if we buy a prepaid activation kit (phone, sim, and activation code) do we need an IMEI from a sidekick to activate it?

[gomer713]

Hey if we buy a prepaid activation kit (phone, sim, and activation code) do we need an IMEI from a sidekick to activate it?

nope. is what i did was activated my $19 phone as just as regular phone then i went online the next and changed my pay-as-go plan to pay-as-you-go sidekick data plan (check TMo's website it might be named something different). after i did, that i waited a day or so for it to kick in. then put my SIM in my iphone and inputed the APN listed in this thread and ba-dah bing it worked. TMo customer serv. thinks i have a sidekick which i don't nor have i ever, much less i have yet to need the IMEI from one.

[sucram65]

How long should it take for the change to kick in? I've been on pay-as-you go for almost two years now and just switched to the sidekick plan during the last hour. No data connection yet.

How long should it take for the change to kick in? I've been on pay-as-you go for almost two years now and just switched to the sidekick plan during the last hour. No data connection yet.

Nevermind, I had a typo in the APN string. The change took effect immediately once I corrected the error. Fantastic. The only disappointment is you get far fewer minutes on the sidekick plan when you refill. $50 only gave me 349 minutes whereas before I was getting a gold rewards bonus that gave me 500 minutes for that much. It is nice to have data though.

[gomer713]

yeah its not many minutes but im mostly texting or emailing anyway.which is all unlimited on the sidekick plan besides that i can't really talk at work anyway either so it works out just fine for me.

[xply]

1. is this still working? using a tmobile prepaid sidekick sim in an iPhone?

2. also, if I activate the SIM online, it asks for an IMEI number. I don't have a sidekick. Will any IMEI number work? or do I need an IMEI from a sidekick?

[gomer713]

1. is this still working? using a tmobile prepaid sidekick sim in an iPhone?

2. also, if I activate the SIM online, it asks for an IMEI number. I don't have a sidekick. Will any IMEI number work? or do I need an IMEI from a sidekick?

yes, it still works... i've been useing it for months. my sim isn't from a Sidekick nor has it ever been in one. i need to correct myself though i orignally activated my sim on the pre-paid phone i bought from tmobile by calling the number on the packaging, created a phone number, chose my plan and all that stuff, i chose pay as you go, THEN i went online (t-mobile.com)to change my plan to the Sidekick Pay As You Go Data Plan. i do know if you activate over the phone and then go online to change your plan same way i did, it'll work, I activated it as a regular phone (not a sidekick). also i'm not sure if any IMEI number will work because it is said that ONLY sidekicks can use that plan so i'm sure ONLY a sidekick IMEI will work if it asks for one.so activate your sim as a regular phone not on the sidekick plan FIRST then go online to change your plan to sidekick. thats what i did and it work for me

EDIT: this only works with FW 2.2 or below NOT 2.2.1 so if you've got a brand new iPhone it's most likely on 2.2.1 so you'll have to downgrade to 2.2 cause yellowsn0w currently only unlocks 2.2 baseband. you probably already knew this but some people don't.

[xply]

i actually have a first generation unlocked iphone with FW 2.2.1. will it still work?

also do I have to use a tmobile SIM card that is specifically for the prepaid sidekick? Or can I just buy any prepaid phone kit from the store and use that SIM my phone? In ebay, some sellers specifically have in their title, "prepaid SIM for sidekick" but they look the same as the pictures of regular SIM cards.

[gomer713]

i'm sure it'll work with 1st gen. i'm sure not too sure about it being on 2.2.1.. all of my iPhones are on 2.2 and my 1st gen is still with AT&T but it's unlocked so my prepaid tmo sim works on it just as well as my 3G.

all sim cards are the same from tmobile the only difference is the plan you put on them. so yeah you could just buy a prepaid phone kit and use it's SIM. note: i only used the prepaid phone to activate the SIM other then that it's useless. as for ebay i don't know, he might be talking about that it CAME from a sidekick not that it's ONLY for a sidekick might want to ask the seller

[young e]

The OP is referring to the prepaid Sidekick plan, not the Flex/Postpay plans you're talking about. The pricing on that prepaid plan hasn't changed since it was introduced years ago.

Compdoc,
I am currently using a prepaid Sidekick plan on a first-gen iPhone. The steps I took:
0) Unlock and activate the phone using pwnage or QuickPWN (obvious, but some forget to do this step).
1) Purchase a Prepaid SIM (this runs around 7-10 bucks depending on source and location).
2) Activate the SIM with the "Sidekick" prepaid plan. I did this at a corp store without issue (said I had a sidekick, but it wasn't on my person), and it can also be done online and over the phone.
3) Prior to putting the SIM in your phone, using Wifi, install either 'T-Mobile carrier bundle' via Cydia (BigBoss hosts the packages).
4) Restart phone, and put your SIM into the phone. Allow it to startup normally.
5) Go to Settings--->General--->Network--->Cellular Data Network and put in the following:
APN: hiptop.t-mobile.com
Username: guest
Password: guest
6) (Optional, but might be neccessary) Restart/power cycle the phone.

Once this is done, you should get access to the web and data-using apps without wifi. Unlimited SMS works as well (no configuration necessary).

MMS (pay per use) issues:
I haven't gotten MMS to work, since T-Mobile somehow requires usage of another APN, and Swirly (while attempting to use this APN) disables my data connection. If someone find a way to get MMS working with a prepaid SK plan, please let me know.

Hope this helps.

Worked!!!! didnt have to do step 3 either

[jm42001]

i actually have a first generation unlocked iphone with FW 2.2.1. will it still work?

also do I have to use a tmobile SIM card that is specifically for the prepaid sidekick? Or can I just buy any prepaid phone kit from the store and use that SIM my phone? In ebay, some sellers specifically have in their title, "prepaid SIM for sidekick" but they look the same as the pictures of regular SIM cards.

Yes, FW 2.2.1 works on my first gen iphone with this sidekick plan. I just followed these steps and everything worked within minutes. You don't have to use a prepaid SIM for a sidekick either. You can use any prepaid SIM.

[marknizz]

thanks to everyone in this thread i Just got my phone unlocked and this morning picked up a prepaid sim starter kit...now im at the part if i should activate my phone to a sidekick plan with the sim card in my Iphone

well i got txt msgs when i activate the sim but i sent a few txt msgs and didnt get anything back also my safari is not working

[gomer713]

Change your plan to sidekick and make sure your APN is correct

[marknizz]

Change your plan to sidekick and make sure your APN is correct

everything working but i cant get on the internet i got the apn wrong or somthin....any suggestions?

[xply]

all of a sudden, my internet is not working fully. my apn is hiptop.t-mobile.com with guest as both user and password. My safari browser can only load google.com but when I try and search using that site, it just hangs or never changes pages. The google search button just gray's out without any activity. Also, none of my apps are able to use data either (maps, yelp, etc.). The only thing that works is when retrieving email messages. I can't send emails either. It was working till a few days ago. To my knowledge, I haven't changed, deleted, or installed anything new. It happened when I came back from vacation.

[sabine_stroehm]

all of a sudden, my internet is not working fully. my apn is hiptop.t-mobile.com with guest as both user and password. My safari browser can only load google.com but when I try and search using that site, it just hangs or never changes pages. The google search button just gray's out without any activity. Also, none of my apps are able to use data either (maps, yelp, etc.). The only thing that works is when retrieving email messages. I can't send emails either. It was working till a few days ago. To my knowledge, I haven't changed, deleted, or installed anything new. It happened when I came back from vacation.

Have a look around. Theres a number of threads explaining why. Basically tmo changed something, closing the loophole that let folks use their iphones on the sidekick dataplan. The result? You have to get a different data plan.