Monday, August 15, 2011

Getting a Canadian iPhone to work with an AT&T GoPhone SIM card, Conclusion

Back from vacation in Virginia Beach, and I thought I'd let all know that the AT&T SIM card I put in my Canadian iPhone 3G has worked flawlessly for the complete duration of my trip.

I had read on different sites that AT&T might deactivate the SIM, supposedly because they could detect that my phone was canadian, but no such thing happened.

So, I definitely recommend using the GoPhone SIM card in the iPhone 3G. As for the iPhone 4, it doesn't work as far as I can tell.

6 comments:

  1. I'm planning to do exactly the same thing in 2 months with an old unlocked 3G iPhone.
    I am curious what exactly did you ask for at the att store ? Is there a sim card activation procedure to follow ? Is 3G access an option i have to request allong with the data plan ? What about the carrier profile ? Thanks !

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  2. I came into the store and asked for a GoPhone SIM card, they asked what I would do with it, and I told them I'd use it in my iPhone.

    They of course said that it wouldn't work (and they were right at least for my iPhone 4), but I replied that I'd take full responsibility, and basically that all I wanted to do was give them the money.

    You then activate the SIM card on site (that is AT&T gives you a phone number), and then you decide what phone/sms plan you want (I took the $15 minimum for $2/day with unlimited phone/sms in the US), and what data plan you want (I took the $25 for 500 Megs).

    That's it. 3G access is not an "option", it comes with the data plan.

    As for the carrier profile, you need something called APN changer I think, I can't remember exactly, refer to the site I linked in the first installment of this series.

    Let me know how it goes for you.

    I myself am planning to keep that old phone for a trip to spain next year :-)

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  3. All right! Thanks a lot.

    I am still curious about the activation. I thought the data plan was only possible if you provided some phone serial or id number.

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  4. I too had heard rumors about that, but that wasn't my experience.

    Good Luck.

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  5. I have another question ;)

    How did it work with the $2 plan ? Did you put some money on it at the store or later ? Thx !

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  6. I bought a (minimum ?) $15 at the store. Then any day I used the phone, it deducted $2.

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