Using iphone 3g or 3gs without data plan

[littleboy683]

Right now my iphone 2g is broken and im just waiting for my contract to end which is in about a week or two. My parents dont want me to get another iphone because of the expensive bill. So I was wondering if I could get a 3g or 3gs and use it without a data plan? If so how?

Ive heard of people just asking nicely at the att store for them to block the data plan. I'd heard of buying a cheap phone and then buying an iphone from ebay and swapping sim cards. Ive also heard of people getting caught doing this and then att slaps them with a huge bill.

Is any of this stuff true? does any of this stuff work?

Any help is appreciated

[battlecrushr]

eBay then then swap the sim.

[wannabprogramma]

Ive heard of people just asking nicely at the att store for them to block the data plan.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA sorry but no your not gunna get that lucky... what you do is buy one off ebay, craigslist, or get one from a friend that's no longer under a plan, and as soon as you get it jailbreak it and unlock it and then download sbssettings and turn off 3g and Edge and THEN put in your sim.... when you get caught is when you don't turn off the 3g before you put in the sim and you accidently access the internet and AT&T can tell its from an iphone....I've been doin this for a year on a 2g and a couple months on a 3g and it works perfectly!!!!!!!!!!!!

[littleboy683]

^^do you think this would work on a 3gs too?

[wannabprogramma]

YAYUP!!!!!! definately will!!!!!

[littleboy683]

okay and last question, does it have to be bought from ebay,craiglist and other sites like that, I dont have a credit card and my parents hate those sites hhaha. I cant buy it from the apple store and then unlock it and do the whole process you said before?

[wannabprogramma]

Apple and AT&T make you buy a plan when you buy a phone .....but if your plan's about to run out you could go buy one right now and then in a couple months your plan will be over and you could do the process and not redo your service contract.....as far as the sites.....you can get it from any site or anybody who has an iphone no longer under a plan

[littleboy683]

if i went to the apple store and bought one tomorrow wouldn't i need to sign another 2 year contract though?

[wannabprogramma]

hmmmmm......good point but i thought u could say u already have a plan and buy just the phone...

[littleboy683]

would this stuff work if i used a pay as you go sim card

[Imahottguy]

Please check bigboss' site; his EDGE toggle is definitely hit-miss. As far as swapping SIMs and such, the problem lies in the IMEI. No matter what SIM you have, your IMEI will always register as an iPhone. Therefore, you would need to change your IMEI if you wanted to successfully thwart AT&T's computers from auditing your account (adding the data package). Before you ask, IMEI changing is considered phreaking, a federal offense. Also, on a 1st Gen, one can spoof the IMEI using software by zibri. However, that probably cannot be discussed here. The software will only work on 1st Gen phones. Sorry.

Now there are those that do the SIM swap and claim success, but heed this warning: If they catch you, they WILL add the data, and the only way to remove said data would be to use a different phone. On top of that, they add it without you knowing. So then the bill comes and you are forced to pay it.

[wannabprogramma]

hmmmm...well if his edge toggle is hit-miss then I've hit four times in a row Guess I'm just lucky but I'm just saying that I've never had a problem and I've done it for 2 of my phones and I guess about 2 of my friends and none of us have ever been charged a penny.......

[littleboy683]

thanks for the help guys

[duncand]

I'd like to update this thread.

As of yesterday, ATT just discovered we were using an iPhone 3GS and added the data plan. We got a txt from them saying so.

I contacted them all indignant, and had them remove it, but the would not do it until after I put the sim card back in the old LG phone, which I did. They then removed the data plan and told me to have a nice day.

Here's the back story:

I bought a used 3GS and upgraded it to iOS4. Then I went into the settings and turned off 3G and Edge data.

We thought we were in the clear and used the phone for about a month.

Then they added the data plan.

So, now I'm looking for a way to get around this. We like the phone but don't need data, as we have WiFi everywhere.

Any ideas on what to try now?

[Bluemoldycheeze88]

Buy a Nice used iPhone 3g or 3gs from eBay.

Get a brand new sim card activate it on at&t.com as go phone sim.

Enter a Random IMEI number on at&t.com, wait for them to say your sim is activate and get your phone number

install the sim in your used iphone and then Simply Select At&ts $60 Unlimited Talk/Text

you will have a go phone iPhone with no data and you can update to all new firmwares if you don't plan on jailbreaking it or have a need to unlock it

[ocean223]

I activated a 3gs with a gophone sim. I bought the $60.00 unlimited
talk and text package along with a $19.99 100mb data plan just in case I could not use wifi. All was ok for the first month. Then ATT took me off the Unlimited plan (after I paid another $60.00) and started charging me .25 cents per minute. I took myself off the data plan figuring that I will just use wifi and not their network for internet. Guess what? In one day they took about $40.00 bucks from me! I got the $60.00 plan fixed from customer service, but they would not budge on the data charges of about $30.00 for connecting to my own wifi! I had no idea that this could occurr.

What did I do wrong? how can they charge me for data on my own wifi network? The customer service person insists that this is how they operate. I remain with ATT for this month only to cut my losses as they would not refund my remaining balance without a lot of red tape.

Anyone have any thoghts on this?