16 GB iPhone

Bought a 16 GB phone today after being told by the Apple Store that a new contract was not needed. Tried to activate with old sim and was presented with a new 2 year contract. Called ATT and was told by the rep and her supervisor that ATT policy was to require a new contract. Called the Apple Store where the person I talked to now says that a new 2 year contract is required. I'll be returning the phone in the morning and hope they don't try to charge me the $49 restocking charge.

that's what I was afraid of -- another another 2 year stint with ATT. Am hoping that by the time my first 2 years is up there will ne other options.

so no matter what, a new iPhone replacing an existing iPhone, you'll be hit with another 2yr contract? No way of going around that? My contract ends with Sprint next month and im planning on getting the 8gb iPhone, i wanted to wait untill the new iPhone comes out but thats too long and might be pricey. I like the $399 price, kinda. I just dont see myself waiting another 3+ months untill the new iPhone and i might not like it or need the new features? Just wanted to know first off, thanks for the help!

You do not have to start a new 2 year contract just to upgrade to a new iPhone. What you do when you activate the iPhone is you set it up as the new iPhone replacing the current one. It will state that you are starting a 2 year contract but you aren't. If you are 6 months into a 2 year contract, you will still be 6 years into that 2 year contract when you upgrade iPhones. I have done this twice already with iPhones and I have always stayed at the same point in my contract as I was before the new iPhone.

For all of the people that are saying just swap the sim and reactivate and your fine..

where are you getting your information from? Have you actually done it?

I just bought the 16 Swapped the sim with my 8gb.

The 16 would not recognize the 8 gb sim and on the phone it just kept showing the connect to itunes picture.

After a few hours of waiting i connected to itunes and reactivated choosing the option that says that i am already a att customer and want to reactiivate. Or something like that cant remember the excat wording

After i reactivated i checked my account and saw that it had been extended another 2 years.

I then fought with att for three hours and about 6 calls to finally get a manager to put my contract back to 6 months.

According to att an replacement from iphone to iphone no matter what the reason..lost, stolen , broken, 8 to 16, is a new 2 year contract.

I have also read other post of people trying to swap the sim card and have the 16 gig just sit there with the connect to itunes picture.

Also take a look at this post

http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2008/02/05/16gb-iphone-upgraders-forced-to-sign-2-yea r-contract-extensions/

Regardless of what iTunes and what AT&T tells you, you are not stuck with another two year contract. If you are 6 months into your contract and you want to switch to the new 16GB phone, you will still be 6 months into your same contract when you activate the new phone. Itunes just says you are getting a new contract because it is meant for activating new iPhones with a new contract one time only. They don't have it setup for upgrades even though you can choose an upgrade option. I still have my 2400 rollover minutes after upgrading my iPhone two times, my contract has never started over.

I found this thread after seeing the article on MacNN.com on 'iPhone upgraders encounter SIM problems'.

I own a 8GB iPhone and want to upgrade to a 16GB one. When I called AT&T iPhone support to ask how to transfer my current account to the new phone, they recommended I swap my old SIM Card into the new phone then activate. After reading how a number of folks here couldn't get that method to word, and instead activated by using the new SIM in the new iPhone, I called AT&T iPhone support again and pointed this out to them. I then asked that given the confusion and feedback, what now is their recommended method. The answer was the same, swap SIM cards first.

My question, then, is after seeing many posts of how swapping SIM cards doesn't work ... is there anyone out there who can confirm that it actually does?

I have activated two iPhones in this manner, the latest being the 16GB. IN both cases, the iPhone would not activate till I put the sim that the new phone came with back into it. The phone will not activate with your old phones sim in it.

Recently updated information on this topic here. http://ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/iphone-upgraders-forced-into-new-2-ye ar-contracts-updated/

16GB iphone? WHAT?

i thought the largest was 4gb

Many thanks ... pity the Apple iPhone support folks aren't recommending this, and essentially adding to the confusion.

Bzzt.

Message was edited by: tthiel1

Both of you are wrong. Nice work.

"You have received the same answer from me and from an Apple employee. The SIM card is not locked to a particular iPhone. I can use my iPhone's activated SIM card with my Razr 3x which is a carrier locked AT&T phone. Your activated iPhone's SIM card can be used with any carrier locked AT&T phone or with an unlocked GSM phone but not the other way around. "

Wrong about what?

That I can use my iPhone's SIM card with my Razr 3x which is an AT&T carrier locked phone which I did yesterday?

This is a user to user help forum and for the most part I provide answers based on my personal experience and what has worked for me.

In addition, my original iPhone purchased on 6/29 was exchanged within the first two weeks due to an earpiece problem. My replacement was new (not refurbished) and was delivered without a SIM card. I popped my existing SIM card in my iPhone replacement and after an abbreviated activation process with iTunes, I was up and running.

So which part am I wrong about again?