[angeloma420]

yes. just have him order the iphone with his upgrade. when he gets it have him call att and say he is not setting it up right now and they will take off the data plan and will just tell him to add it when he uses it. trust me i just did this with my mother in laws plan and used her upgrade and everything is just fine. you will have to use his att sim to activate iphone and jailbreak to download unlock.

[ianbroste]

I have a feeling its a case by case scenario. Depending on who at att you are dealing with. Your best bet would be to call and talk to someone about buying one and say you can't activate it right away.

[Imahottguy]

I was trying to get this to work for my Fiances 3G. As the conversation progressed, I told the rep that I was going to sell the phone and give her a RAZR, and then asked if I would still be charged for unlimited data that she didn't use. Their response: No, the feature will be removed once you start using the RAZR. They went on to say that the TOS say that some phones may require data. A RAZR, does not require data (apparently). iPhones, BB's do require data (per AT&T).

So, in your situation, you want to use your Dad's upgrade to get the iPhone 3GS (a good choice!), then take the 3GS over to T-Mo and use it. You are worried that he will still incur the $30 All you can eat charge. He will definitely not incur such a charge. Though, a call to CS with a crock story of the iPhone going for a swim, thus ensuring that the feature is removed, wouldn't hurt.

And I don't think anyone has mentioned it, but you may need to JB it. (lol, couldn't resist).

Come on people! He wants to use it w/ T-Mo! Don't you think that he knows that it needs to be JB/UL??

[chefquinata]

okay i was just thinking of something similar to this and looking for posts of successful management of features online that would either remove the iphone 3g/s data plan or switch it for the iphone $20 data/text plan.

i think it might be possible to avoid calling a rep. altogether if you use the online account management to switch back to the razr (and previous rate plan) after the iphone 3gs is activated. here is my reasoning...

i just used my wife's upgrade eligibility to buy a 3gs at discount (after i bought one at discount with my eligibility and one at early upgrade discount for my line - all within 4 days) and under direction from the at&t salesperson at my local shop i took my wife's 1st gen iphone and plugged it into intunes, went through the activation process and she is back on her $20 iphone data plan. when i bought the 3gs with her upgrade it switched her rate plan to the 3gs $30 plan and it was visible on the online account management site. now she's switched back and not because of anything that the reps did. i did it at home.

i know this isn't exactly the same, but hear me out. if you take your sim out of your iphone (with a regular at&t data plan) and put it in a different at&t sim phone, you can change the phone on the account management site and that should give you the option to change the features that you have on the plan. so if you aren't using the iphone, it shouldn't require you to choose the data plan that goes with it...

but it may not work unless you call the rep after you switch the sim back to the razr. it should def. work if the iphone "fell into the pool". cough coughnotreallycough cough.
i know people were doing some iphone data plan swapping when the 3g came out. i think some of them got busted but i got one used and unlocked it, slapped in my sim (from 1st gen iphone), and it worked with 3g speeds on the 1st gen plan.
anybody think this will work besides me? hell i think i'll try it now...


*** EDIT ***
so i went online to try this and you can't remove the iphone data plan even after switching the phone & sim.
i'd still try the customer service reps. i'm sure they'll change it if your dad's iphone was to ___insert excuse here___ .
(wink)

[bobright]

Wont work dont u think everyone would be doing this? Act like they want to "upgrade" get the phone at a cheap price, keep or sell the phone, and go back to there plain old plan. Pssh.

The reason you get it so cheap for 199 or 299 is because ur commited to a contract and thats how the moneys made up

[gordo2150]

Originally Posted by bobright

Wont work dont u think everyone would be doing this? Act like they want to "upgrade" get the phone at a cheap price, keep or sell the phone, and go back to there plain old plan. Pssh.

The reason you get it so cheap for 199 or 299 is because ur commited to a contract and thats how the moneys made up

It's called Subsidizing, but there is a few ways to go around in getting a cheaper service!


Do you know how many folks have broken their brand new 3GS, on the shop I work for! as today monday we have 27, iphone 3GS, battery and LCD problems! (NYC) DO you know how many people could loose their cell, that's way ATT has no insurance on it, have for a while then reporit stolen or lost! you might have to paid cancellation feeds. or you can come to the agreement to use another cell with the MediaNet Service if you get a not so bright sales rep this might work! but other wise ATT would bother you like crazy with test messages and funny rep calls

N

[Poseidon79]

Your IMEI on the iPhone will flag the account in most cases and you will start to receive automated text messages about switching to a compatible plan.

[Imahottguy]

^^ For some they don't send the messages, they just change it for you...

[gordo2150]

next time we all should get factory unlocked cell phones!