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The phone is unlocked but the voice plans, data plans and everything else would still be subject to the whims of the carrier you choose to go with. Nothing changes here except that the phone is no longer tied to AT&T on the GSM side of the house.
Help me think through this (my coffee hasn't kicked in and I'm still a little foggy).
1) If I buy an unlocked iPhone 4, can I use it on ATT without a data plan?
2) Would I be able to have a standard texting add on to voice only?
3) Assuming it would have functional GPS, why would I (I know this is an unfair question, but I am asking it anyway) need a data plan? I have an iPad2 with unlimited data plan which I intend to keep.
The reason I am kicking this around is the iPhone is (as Steve Jobs said in his intro for it) a combination Phone, iPod, and Internet Device. The iPad is far superior as an internet device so I almost never web surf on my iPhone. So bottomline, I am asking myself (and my friends here) what I would really be giving up if I lost that functionality on my iPhone.
Am I overlooking something?
Still leaves my questions about how much usability would I lose having an iPhone with no data plan. ;P
What people do is buy the iphone and add to a plan that already has a cheap phone on it, and simply switch out the sim card while, renewing the identification number. Without renewing the identification number on the iphone's sim car, it will only be allowed to work on other iphone plans. The same thing is done for att and tmobile.
Your assuming that the carrier would allow you to do so. I'm willing to bet they won't.
The reason T-Mobile hasn't gotten on your case is simple: They don't offer a compatible 3G for your iPhone. T-Mobile uses different frequencies for their 3G. So really your "unlocked" iPhone is an EDGE only phone with T-Mobile. Sure, you can still use it for WiFi and T-Mobile certainly offers better dollar for dollar contracts than AT&T and Verizon. I've been a T-Mobile customer for years primarily because it's the least expensive of all the major carriers.
Aptmunich said:Wow, I know the telecom market is different in the US, but that is nutballs.
People would riot over here if any carrier tried to force you to buy a dataplan to use an unlocked phone.
Wow, I know the telecom market is different in the US, but that is nutballs.
People would riot over here if any carrier tried to force you to buy a dataplan to use an unlocked phone.
If I buy the phone and pay for minutes, why should the carrier care (or be allowed to influence) how I use my device?
Regarding Razormac's real issue though: I use my iPhone 4 and tether my iPad to it (there's no extra charge to tether here - I am paying for the data after all…). I find myself using data on my iPhone much more frequently than I do on my iPad, so that's the most convenient arrangement for me (apart for paying for 2 data plans that is).
That way I can check my emails/twitter/maps/etc. anytime while I'm out and I can still use my iPad for longer periods on the train, car etc.
I have been running iPhones on tmobile ever since the first gen. Starting from 3GS I got factory unlocked iPhones only. To this day I'm using iphone4 factory unlocked and tmobile never made me get a data plan. Infact I'm using the tzones plan still on my iPhone.
You can't do that with the iPhone 3g-4 and beyond. They know what kind of phone you have the moment it gets a signal. They will make you buy a data plan.
Just out of sheer curiosity - let's say I take my unlocked iPhone to a carrier that ordinarily doesn't carry the iPhone (T-Mobile, just for this example). Do features like Visual Voicemail work? I thought that had to be specifically enabled by the carrier.