AT&T Decides to Not Win More Friends -- Goodbye iPhone GoPhone Support

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AT&T Decides to Not Win More Friends -- Goodbye iPhone GoPhone Support

Posted 06/16/2009 at 11:26:12am | by J Keirn-Swanson

A much ado about nothing or a legitimate beef? According to users, Pay As You Go data plans have worked for some time. According to AT&T, Pay As You Go was never approved for use with the iPhone to begin with:

Pay As You Go rate plans are not approved for AT&T iPhone customers. Customers currently using an iPhone with a Pay As You Go rate plan should call 800-901-9878 so they can move to an approved rate plan with the required unlimited Data Plan for iPhone.

Though by taking advantage of a technological loophole users did do just that. After replacing their pre-installed SIM cards with Pay As You Go SIMs and purchasing a 5GB rate plan, users were good to go.

What seems to be at stake here is the use of older model phones that are still in good condition grandfathered into an outdated rate structure. GoPhone, AT&T's prepaid cellular/data plans previously worked with the older operating systems for the iPhone. With the updated OS 3 set to release, AT&T customers on this older rate plan have been receiving the following text message:

Possibly this is related to AT&T's announcement that with the newer software release, AT&T plans to mostly route voice through the Edge Network and keep data through the faster 3G Network, freeing up bandwidth for the faster 3G S models. While AT&T isn't claiming that older phones will cease working entirely, they are warning of significant declines in transmission speed and quality.

In any event, it seems Apple's carrier partner continues to bounce from one self-inflicted PR debacle after another.

COMMENTS: 7

TAGS: AT&T, Pay As You Go

COMMENTS

GREEDY BASTARDS
Submitted by terryzx on Tue, 2009-06-16 09:16

BOYCOTT AT$T

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AT&T Customer Service
Submitted by Paul K on Tue, 2009-06-16 10:40

I certainly think that it would be in Apple's interest to use its clout to force AT&T to provide better customer service and a more reasonable rate structure. I would love to have an iPhone but I cannot afford the AT&T service plan.

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Legitimate way to switch carriers?
Submitted by ilikeimac on Tue, 2009-06-16 11:47

What I want to know is, if I pay my early termination fee, am I free and clear to take my iPhone to another carrier for service and would it work? I'd gladly do this if another carrier came along with a good tethering option; support for visual voice mail would be nice but not necessary.

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AT&T
Submitted by jwhitsel on Tue, 2009-06-16 11:51

Sucks! C'mon with Verizon!

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Updated
Submitted by J Keirn-Swanson on Tue, 2009-06-16 12:42

Apparently, according to TUAW, this only affects Pay As You Go GoPhone customers and not Pick Your Plan GoPhone customers. Apparently the Reps at AT&T aren't the very best at communicating the distinction, but still....
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I can confirm that gophone
Submitted by dneace on Wed, 2009-06-17 13:23

I can confirm that gophone pay as you go sim chips do not work with data on OS 3.0. I just downloaded it and now I have zero data capability. Luckily I bought the phone in Italy and will be going back in a couple of weeks. Until then I guess I am completely out of luck when it comes to checking data on my phone.

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omega watches
Submitted by benet (not verified) on Tue, 2009-11-10 22:39

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