AT&T does not want Non-US customers??

[JochenN]

Hi,

I am writing here since it is extremely difficult to become AT&T customer, at least if you are from Germany (or other countries) and want to use your iPhone 4S in the States for some weeks.

What I would like is a prePaid plan with roughly 500 MB of monthly volume and a decent phone call plan. But it has to work with a non-US (German in my case) iPhone 4S that has no (!) netlock or SIM-Lock.

If I were AT&T I would offer a plan like this: Buy a Micro-SIM along with a, say, 30 US$ prePaid data plan (valid for 1 month and 500 MB) at any inbound US Airport counter, activate, use. But this seems very difficult...

Various sources on the internet tell me that AT&T does not want non-AT&T iPhones on their network. Any hints, maybe directly from someone working for AT&T?

Thanks!!

Regards

Jochen

[joeshmo2010]

just buy an inactive microsim off ebay for like $3 or $5 and then activate it online with a prepaid plan. 

[21stNow]

iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 are not eligible to be used on the prepaid service.  I doubt that they have changed it for the iPhone 4S.

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB110787#fbid=W8nEZBDGSIh

[MaxBurn]

The URL appears to be invalid and it also appears to be old information. Smart phones including the iPhone are now allowed on AT&T's go phone but you will have to purchase go phone data and after the last round of changes you'll have to be on the $50 or $25 a month plan plus data costs.

[hnzw_rui · Accepted solution]

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21stNow wrote:

iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 are not eligible to be used on the prepaid service.  I doubt that they have changed it for the iPhone 4S.

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB110787#fbid=W8nEZBDGSIh

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That's old information back when the iPhone 4 was released and before iPhones became available unlocked via Apple in the US. Since April 2011, I believe, there's nothing in the GoPhone Terms of Service preventing you from using the iPhone on prepaid. Of course, it does get expensive - $50 minimum for typical 1-month data use ($25 for 250 minutes/unlimited text + $25/1GB data).

[JochenN]

Hi,

thanks for this promising info (non-AT&T iPhone supported on AT&T network now). So I'd think the best (and only) way to get this working is to walk into one of their stores and buy one of these 25$ data plus 25$ phone plans for one months. Since I will be in the U.S. for three weeks this seems perfect, and 1 GB of data is also the right data plan.

Does anyone know whether this plan allows a) Tethering and b) VoIP calls? Or is there an additional option I'd have to buy? Heck, why is this AT&T website so intransparent and confusing (OK, others are not better...)

[hnzw_rui]

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JochenN wrote:

Hi,

thanks for this promising info (non-AT&T iPhone supported on AT&T network now). So I'd think the best (and only) way to get this working is to walk into one of their stores and buy one of these 25$ data plus 25$ phone plans for one months. Since I will be in the U.S. for three weeks this seems perfect, and 1 GB of data is also the right data plan.

Does anyone know whether this plan allows a) Tethering and b) VoIP calls? Or is there an additional option I'd have to buy? Heck, why is this AT&T website so intransparent and confusing (OK, others are not better...)

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Tethering - no. VoIP - yes. Sorry but tethering is against the terms of service on all prepaid plans I've seen.

Not sure if you'd get support from the AT&T retail store with your iPhone, though. While the terms of service does allow iPhones on prepaid now, it's still a practice that AT&T heavily frowns upon.