Does anyone have any experience with using an AT&T iPhone with one of the no-contract, bring-your-own-phone carriers? Our home phone and cell phone service have both been shut off. I have an old iPhone 3GS that I would like to use on a service like Net10, Straight Talk or something similar until such time that I can rob a bank or win the lottery and come up with enough money to get our phones turned back on.
As long as your AT&T phones are paid for and out of contract, you should be able to get the devices unlocked on Ma' Bell's portal: https://www.att.com/deviceunlock/#/ . (Note: GoPhone and Cricket will work without an unlock as they are owned by AT&T.)
For which service you choose comes down to what your individual needs are and cost. Personally, I would stay away from any América Móvil brands (Straight Talk, Net 10, TracFone, etc.) if you value anything close to resembling decent customer service.
Try paging through and asking over on Howard-Forums: http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php/325-US-Prepaid-MVNO-Discussion . They should be able to help guide you towards an appropriate carrier.
AT&T now owns Cricket, which is now their major pre-paid brand along with their GoPhone lineup. Since Cricket now runs on AT&T's network, any AT&T-branded phone will work by just popping in a Cricket SIM - no unlock needed.
Data-wise, while Cricket supports 4G LTE and 4G HSPA+, the speeds are maxed at 8Mbps and 4Mbps respectively. That hasn't been an issue for me.
I can vouch for Cricket. I've had no major issues with them. They have pretty good coverage (except, annoyingly, in my apartment) in most places. The price is great. And while I haven't personally used an AT&T locked phone on Cricket, we did do that on Net10 and it worked, and I do know from everyone else, that Cricket is no different: AT&T phones will work.
Consumer Cellular is another good one that works with old AT&T phones. You can even put together a very inexpensive plan with less talk or data. Customer service is excellent. BTW, stay away from any future IOS updates (though I believe Apple no longer supports the 3).
Just a word of caution, Cricket Wireless and many other MVNO's do not have roaming coverage and are restricted to a single service provider's network only.
Had a roadgeek Facebook friend (who may or may not be a member here, I don't know if he is or not) offer me an unused Cricket SIM that he has on an active plan. He's mailed it to me and I will try it. When I wiped and reset the iPhone 3GS it downloaded the latest version of iOS 6 and hasn't prompted me for anymore.
This is primarily for my wife. I have a work phone that I can use, but she needs something for emergencies.
Being too broke to pay the bills really, really sucks. I wouldn't wish this circumstance on my worst enemy.
Quote from: on_wisconsin on August 02, 2015, 04:53:12 PM
For which service you choose comes down to what your individual needs are and cost. Personally, I would stay away from any América Móvil brands (Straight Talk, Net 10, TracFone, etc.) if you value anything close to resembling decent customer service.
No duh; after having Tracfone for three years with no problems and NET10 since 2010, my five year old LG900 will communicate with any tower in the county except the one in my own neighborhood; it's a PITA to be sitting in your house and having your phone say NO SERVICE 85-90 percent of the time and maybe get two bars for a whole 30 seconds before it drops out again, then as soon as I drive to work on the interstate it's all hunky-dory. After spending three hours with NET10 tech support (who confirm that their tower had maintenance done on it) and having them send me a new SIM card (which didn't fix the issue, along with another 30 minutes on the phone with them), now I get to get back on the phone with them with no belief that they're going to do anything to fix it.
The worst part is that I used to test components for cell base stations in a previous job in 1999, I know most likely the problem's with the tower base station controller lookup and routing tables, but I doubt they're gonna do a truck roll.
If my money and credit weren't funny right now I would flee to T-Mobile in a heartbeat.
Quote from: hbelkins on August 05, 2015, 03:06:42 PM
Had a roadgeek Facebook friend (who may or may not be a member here, I don't know if he is or not) offer me an unused Cricket SIM that he has on an active plan. He's mailed it to me and I will try it. When I wiped and reset the iPhone 3GS it downloaded the latest version of iOS 6 and hasn't prompted me for anymore.
This is primarily for my wife. I have a work phone that I can use, but she needs something for emergencies.
Being too broke to pay the bills really, really sucks. I wouldn't wish this circumstance on my worst enemy.
I know that guy - he's good people. ;) Hope that works out for you - both the SIM and the improvement of your situation. Been there, done that, survived.
Quote from: on_wisconsin on August 04, 2015, 11:47:22 AM
Just a word of caution, Cricket Wireless and many other MVNO's do not have roaming coverage and are restricted to a single service provider's network only.
Very true. Cricket is now using AT&T's towers. I was previously on Virgin Mobile and they use Sprint's towers.
Quote from: DeaconG on August 05, 2015, 08:19:19 PM
Quote from: on_wisconsin on August 02, 2015, 04:53:12 PM
For which service you choose comes down to what your individual needs are and cost. Personally, I would stay away from any América Móvil brands (Straight Talk, Net 10, TracFone, etc.) if you value anything close to resembling decent customer service.
No duh; after having Tracfone for three years with no problems and NET10 since 2010, my five year old LG900 will communicate with any tower in the county except the one in my own neighborhood; it's a PITA to be sitting in your house and having your phone say NO SERVICE 85-90 percent of the time and maybe get two bars for a whole 30 seconds before it drops out again, then as soon as I drive to work on the interstate it's all hunky-dory. After spending three hours with NET10 tech support (who confirm that their tower had maintenance done on it) and having them send me a new SIM card (which didn't fix the issue, along with another 30 minutes on the phone with them), now I get to get back on the phone with them with no belief that they're going to do anything to fix it.
The worst part is that I used to test components for cell base stations in a previous job in 1999, I know most likely the problem's with the tower base station controller lookup and routing tables, but I doubt they're gonna do a truck roll.
If my money and credit weren't funny right now I would flee to T-Mobile in a heartbeat.
Is MetroPCS available in your area? No-contract (I beleive Tmo owns them now) and they run on T-Mobile's towers. They have a $30 ($50 for 2 lines) plan limited to specific 3G phones.
AT&T.
Look at their BYOD plans, you can Bring your own device, and have no contract at all.
Quote from: Stratuscaster on August 06, 2015, 07:56:36 AM
Quote from: DeaconG on August 05, 2015, 08:19:19 PM
Quote from: on_wisconsin on August 02, 2015, 04:53:12 PM
Going to have to keep that in mind now that I'm working again. I'm getting real tired of the game playing.
For which service you choose comes down to what your individual needs are and cost. Personally, I would stay away from any América Móvil brands (Straight Talk, Net 10, TracFone, etc.) if you value anything close to resembling decent customer service.
No duh; after having Tracfone for three years with no problems and NET10 since 2010, my five year old LG900 will communicate with any tower in the county except the one in my own neighborhood; it's a PITA to be sitting in your house and having your phone say NO SERVICE 85-90 percent of the time and maybe get two bars for a whole 30 seconds before it drops out again, then as soon as I drive to work on the interstate it's all hunky-dory. After spending three hours with NET10 tech support (who confirm that their tower had maintenance done on it) and having them send me a new SIM card (which didn't fix the issue, along with another 30 minutes on the phone with them), now I get to get back on the phone with them with no belief that they're going to do anything to fix it.
The worst part is that I used to test components for cell base stations in a previous job in 1999, I know most likely the problem's with the tower base station controller lookup and routing tables, but I doubt they're gonna do a truck roll.
If my money and credit weren't funny right now I would flee to T-Mobile in a heartbeat.
Is MetroPCS available in your area? No-contract (I beleive Tmo owns them now) and they run on T-Mobile's towers. They have a $30 ($50 for 2 lines) plan limited to specific 3G phones.
I use Straight Talk. I brought over a locked (unless AT&T unlocked it automatically when I satisfied my contract) iPhone 3GS in September or October 2012. I popped the SIM in, activated it online, and it's worked like a charm since. I bought an iPhone 5 in January 2013 unlocked directly from Apple. I just had to trim the SIM to fit and slide it into the new phone, and away I went. I've had a great experience with them now for nearly 3 years.
There have been a couple of quirks though. The first was resolved a couple of years ago, but until then, MMS didn't work on iPhones because Apple locks down a menu screen needed to override some of the settings contained on the SIM to enable it to work. Tracfone pushed out a carrier update and updated their SIM card settings, which fixed the issue. I ordered a new SIM and the day it arrived, an easy phone call to customer service switched me from one card to the other. Total time on the phone with them was maybe 5 minutes, including waiting for a CSR and the time she waited with me to verify that it switched over.
The one crazy caveat is more of a difference in marketing between AT&T and Tracfone. My parents have iPhones through AT&T, and theirs say "4G" while mine says "3G" even though we're standing in the same location and connecting to the same tower. Tracfone doesn't differentiate between HDSPA and HDSPA+ data; they're both actually still 3G (third generation). OTOH, AT&T will call the latter 4G. If we drive into Marquette, all of our phones will switch over the LTE service we have in the area now. My phone has dropped back to E (Edge, 2G) service as necessary, and I've seen it display GPRS (1G data), something that AT&T wouldn't do to maintain some sort of data connection. I get 5GB of data a month, but unlike AT&T, I can't use my phone as a personal hotspot to use that data with my laptop or tablet.
Verizon has announced it is dropping wireless contracts and subsidized phones altogether:
http://www.cnet.com/news/verizon-kills-off-service-contracts-smartphone-subsidies/
I have AT&T for 40gb/mo and i got lucky with a triple discount. I get 25/mo off for bringing my own phone. (i get refurbished phones or 100% unlocked ones), 19% off via a company discount arrangement, and somehow i got "locked" into a 130/mo "contract" that isn't really a contract as i am a BYOD customer. BYOD customers at AT&T are on the same tier as 2+ year customers who paid off their phones, and are just paying for service. I can take it and leave it as i please, but i am immune to rate hikes as well. I use the data when i am on the road in the truck.
T-Mobile offers a BYOD prepaid plan that offers 5 GB of data, unlimited texting, and 100 minutes for $30 per month. It's prefect for people like me do don't make many phone calls.