Cross Upgrade Question and Issue

[haastp]

Hello,

I am currently trying to "cross upgrade" my phone using another person's eligibility within our Family Plan, as I am not yet eligible for an upgrade on my own phone line.

I have been told that--because I am trying to upgrade from a 3G data plan to a 4G LTE data plan, and the other members of my family have a non-4G LTE--I am not going to be able to obtain a new SIM card for the new phone without knocking out the existing SIM card of the person whose upgrade I am using.  Is this correct?

Furthermore, because the family member lives in a different part of the country, it will not be possible for me to have them present at the time of the upgrade, which will cause problems if their SIM card/phone becomes inoperable as a result of the cross upgrade.

My question is this: is there any way to cross upgrade using another family member's eligibility, and have AT&T knock out/replace my SIM card without affecting theirs--and, if this is not possible--is there a way to perform the upgrade in such a way where the other person can reverse the effects of their SIM card being disabled within the same day?

I appreciate your help.

Regards,

TH

[kdfederer ACE - Wizard]

Unfortunately with the new smartphones, as a security feature, they must be activated on the account used for the update. When that is done, the old SIM is deactivated. It cannot be done any other way, because of the security precautions.
The person whose update you are using will probably have to be at a store in their area and coordinate with a store in your area to get this done.
You may have to check to see if this is a possibility.

[haastp]

Thanks kdfederer; I appreciate the feedback.  I will check and see if the stores can coordinate something for me.