AT&T Decides to Not Win More Friends -- Goodbye iPhone GoPhone Support
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still in good condition grandfathered into an outdated rate structure.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.
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benet
November 10, 2009 at 11:39pm
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dneace
June 17, 2009 at 2:23pm
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.
J Keirn-Swanson
June 16, 2009 at 1:42pm
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....
ilikeimac
June 16, 2009 at 12:47pm
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.
Paul K
June 16, 2009 at 11:40am
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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