AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone
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Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone
#2It's not "for all intensive purposes", it's "for all intents and purposes"
Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone
#3AT&T are scum and this sort of stuff is standard practice with them. You shouldn't be giving them your money if you can avoid it.
If you've got a GSM phone with the right radio bands, I suggest taking a look at the $30 plans here: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans
For CDMA I believe Sprint and Verizon offer prepaid plans without contracts at around $50 for talk/data.
The key is that IMO, a prepaid plan makes the terms of the arrangement clear, and if the carrier decides to try and overstep their boundaries, you can cut them off. They don't have the ability to take you to collections or withdraw from your account or increase your bill behind your back.
Of course, if T-Mobile tries to screw with you as a prepaid customer, they've got some leverage since your only alternative is AT&T. Not so great. Still, better than nothing...
Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone
#4It's not "for all intensive purposes", it's "for all intents and purposes" http://grammarist.com/eggcorns/for-all-intensive-purposes/
I never knew that. Fixed. Thanks.
Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone
#5I've had this happen to me. I agree it's presumptuous and toeing the line but just so you know I've always been able call them and have the data plan turned off for good on that line.
One of the arguments I make with them is that if I have kids on my family plan who go off to school and pop their feature phone SIM card into their friends smartphone, I can't be expected to deal with that headache - and if AT&T isn't going to recognize that the person who pays the bill should have the final say in the matter, and they don't offer basic parental controls, I'll take my business elsewhere.
It's worked at least three times on three different lines off the top of my head.
Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone
#6It's not clear if he's referring to a prepaid plan here. Prepaid definitely is the safest bet - essentially no surprises, and little ability for them to rip you off. I use prepaid AT&T (T-Mobile seems to have less coverage where I go) when I'm in the States, and the data is optional.
On prepaid it used to be that the available/required plans depended on the IMEI used to activate the SIM. So if you bring a crapphone and activate then switch the SIM into your iPhone you should be set and not need an upgrade. Not sure if that's still the case and they only periodically audit or what.
Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone
#7I'm using T-Mobile in much the manner the author describes and not having any problems. This is exactly the kind of reason why their attempt to buy T-Mobile failed.
Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone
#8This started happening about 1.5 years ago on AT&T. Any smart phone that AT&T "knows about" will get a ~$30/mo smartphone data plan added the moment you insert your SIM card into it. You'll get a text message ~30 minutes later saying so.
You can get around this by using a phone that hasn't previously been on AT&T's network. For example, I have a Galaxy Nexus, iPhone 2G, and Nexus One that have all gotten past this check and I've kept my $10/mo data plan. My iPhone 3G, 4 and Atrix 4G were all previously locked to AT&T and so have caused this message previously.
Once you do this you can put your SIM card back in a "dumb phone" and ~24 hours later you should be able to remove the smart phone data plan from your account via the AT&T web interface.
Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone
#9Joel, you said "They can opt me into a contract that I didn't agree to", but are you sure that you didn't implicitly/legally agree to something that says they can do that? Maybe their Terms of Service?
Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone
#10AT&T are scum and this sort of stuff is standard practice with them. You shouldn't be giving them your money if you can avoid it. If you've got a GSM phone with the right radio bands, I suggest taking a look at the $30 plans here: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans For CDMA I believe Sprint and Verizon offer prepaid plans without contracts at around $50 for talk/data. The key is that IMO, a prepaid p…
T-Mobile is my favorite cellular provider in the US by far and I used them for years before starting work (company pays for phone and Verizon has the best network).
They made having a smartphone affordable and made it easy to upgrade by reselling your unlocked phone online (recouping most of the unsubsidized cost).