iPhone 3GS sim swap with iPhone 3G? OK?

my friend swaps sim cards with his BB bold and iphone all the time.

Funny how many people are in this same predicament. +1 for me. I would like to know the answer to this. It seems logical because both phones have the same 3g plan.

OK, so here is the scoop. I've had an iPhone 3G for 11 months now and ATT says that I can get the lower upgrade price for a 3GS in 1 month. Don't ask me why I only need to be 12 months into my contract before upgrading while other need to be 20 months. My wife is 22 months into a contract with the original iPhone so she is eligible for an upgrade already. So my wife wants my current 3G and I want the new 3GS. I went to the ATT store today and pre-ordered the 3GS using my wife's number to get the discount. I was told by a very knowledgeable sales person that it is no problem swapping the SIMs on the phones so that the 3GS can be on my phone number and my old 3G can be my wife's number. But you MUST have this done at the ATT store since they need to associate the IMEI numbers of the phones with the other SIM cards. So switching the SIMs at home is not going to work, but ATT can and will do it for you.

So I had a strange thing happen. My wife and I both ordered her an upgrade to her 2G iPhone using her current 2G iPhone phone number under our Apple Store account top be delivered at home. I wanted to surprise her for her birthday with an upgrade and she wanted to treat herself to an upgrade! Now, I have 2 phones on the way for June 19. We have 5 phones on a Family Plan. Can both of the phones now be activated on current numbers in our Family Plan? Or will I have trouble activating a phone on another number since the upgrade was based on my wife's 2G phone number. I am surprised the Store allowed for two separate orders with the same qualifying information....

Call AT&T or Apple and cancel one of the orders

This is great if you have nice friendly people at the AT&T store. But if the people aren't willing to work with you then you basically have a nice phone for your wife.. I heard you can just swap the sim cards and plug it in to itunes and it will works..

It worked similar like that with the old iphone. I had my friend who is with AT&T and didn't own an iphone. He took his sim out of his NON-iphone on the AT&T network. He put it in my old iphone and it worked. He never had to activate it or anything. It just worked.

I just stopped at my local ATT corporate store and had the same experience as kushdude. I bought the 32G 3GS using my wife's upgrade and was told it was no problem to switch the sims and give my wife my 3G.

Wait until the 19th and try it? 🙂

As I understand it, you will activate the new phone on your wife's line and then simply swap SIMs...of course making sure you have backups of each iPhones data set beforehand 😀

If you phone AT&T and get someone who knows what they are talking about, they will tell you it can be done but they will need to update the IMEI numbers in their system after you swap SIMs as this is not done automatically.

Lawrence Kellogg wrote:
Yes, there is a Cancel button on the Apple store.

Well, it looks like I am going to have to hope I find some nice people at the AT&T store. I will print this thread and take it with me.

You won't need to print the thread. The AT&T stores I went into are actually telling customers to do this and are ordering the phones for them that way in the stores. Since my order was placed on line the first day I'm not going to change anything now but I will definitely remember this for next year!!
John

…funny how all the wives are getting "downgraded" to the 3G .. LOL

lulz

DJRobX wrote:
It should be easier - there's no difference in the "plan" between the 3G and 3GS.

He would be "cheating" the system only if he tried to keep his wife on the cheaper 2G data plan while upgrading his line to the 3GS. But that's not his intent - his wife is getting the 3G.

I don't think this would be cheating. If you look at AT&T's website, they no longer offer a $20 iPhone data plan (go to http://tinyurl.com/2pzgd7 and then click "features" and look at the data plan offerings).

I called AT&T and asked them if I bought a new iPhone with no commitment and swapped the SIM card, if that would change my bill rate from when I signed up. I also asked her if they would jack up my rates after my two years were up for my original iPhone (as I have the original one), since they no longer seem to offer a $20 data plan for any phone.

She explained that AT&T keeps customers at the same rates that they sign up for until they negotiate a new contract, and that barring any technical wizardry designed to prevent functionality, SIM cards can be swapped between phones (or locked AT&T phones, as the case may be). So it doesn't sound like there is any sort of written policy against it.

I tested my original iPhone SIM card in a friend's 3G earlier that same day, and I was both able to see the 3G icon as well as place a phone call using my 1G (or 2G? why do I see people call it 2G?) SIM in his 3G phone, and I verified that my own number showed up on caller ID, as it should.

So my plan was to ask the Apple or AT&T rep (wherever I buy it) which option would be cheaper: buy the $699 no commit, or buy the $299 with a new line, and pay activation plus 1 month plus the early termination fee. And what the caveats of each are. After I have the hardware unbound to any plan, I was going to put my 1G SIM card in there and stay grandfathered with my old plan, since I did not renegotiate or sign any new plans.

At that point, I will probably use my original iPhone as a dedicated development device, just treating it as an iPod Touch (no phone plan).

But I don't think this is "cheating". My phone bill lists my voice portion as $40, and my data portion as $30, but it rolls my +1500 texts into the data portion. As far as I'm concerned, AT&T has simply raised their rates. They used to include 200 texts for free with all plans, now that's $5 extra per month? What the heck does that have to do with 3G versus Edge? I'm pretty sure absolutely nothing. If they don't automatically jack up plans after contracts mature, I'd like to keep the one I signed up for, thanks.

Message was edited by: G Scott K