12-17-2011, 08:15 AM
We tried this with my wife's old 3g for one of our kids. AT&T has the phone registered. If you put the SIM card from the Samsung in the iPhone, then sign onto your AT&T account, you will see that it recognizes that she's now using an iPhone. An email about it will follow shortly (maybe not the first day, but within a few days) stating that they are going to add a monthly data charge to your plan for the iPhone.
We tried really, really hard to have AT&T waive this. They absolutely refused. Really stupid IMHO, as the Pantech phone my daughter uses can do pretty much all the data things that an iPhone can do. AT&T is able to block data use by request, so there is a way to stop unintended running up of data charges. So technically there is a way to make this work, but AT&T just won't let you do it. Very customer unfriendly.
(Note for anyone who wants to block data use on a phone: blocking data with AT&T also blocks MMS messages, even for people who have a family text plan that includes free MMS. MMS uses data, you just don't get charged for it if you have a family text plan. AT&T is not set up to block most data, but let MMS data through.)
So the 3g sits in a drawer as a backup phone, and I have two kids each using another phone and an iPod Touch.
Also, the $10 sekker mentions for his daughter's phone (I assume AT&T family plan) is probably more like $13 with the add on fees, unless he gets a corporate discount. At least, we paid $13 total for additional lines on the AT&T family plan on our last bill. Total may vary based on local taxes. Ours used to be about $14.50, but the add-ons have dropped a little.
Good luck.
- Winston
We tried really, really hard to have AT&T waive this. They absolutely refused. Really stupid IMHO, as the Pantech phone my daughter uses can do pretty much all the data things that an iPhone can do. AT&T is able to block data use by request, so there is a way to stop unintended running up of data charges. So technically there is a way to make this work, but AT&T just won't let you do it. Very customer unfriendly.
(Note for anyone who wants to block data use on a phone: blocking data with AT&T also blocks MMS messages, even for people who have a family text plan that includes free MMS. MMS uses data, you just don't get charged for it if you have a family text plan. AT&T is not set up to block most data, but let MMS data through.)
So the 3g sits in a drawer as a backup phone, and I have two kids each using another phone and an iPod Touch.
Also, the $10 sekker mentions for his daughter's phone (I assume AT&T family plan) is probably more like $13 with the add on fees, unless he gets a corporate discount. At least, we paid $13 total for additional lines on the AT&T family plan on our last bill. Total may vary based on local taxes. Ours used to be about $14.50, but the add-ons have dropped a little.
Good luck.
- Winston