How can I use my T-mobile prepay micro sim with iphone 4

Question

How can I use my T-mobile prepay micro sim with iphone 4

My wife's T-Mobile phone died last week, she instantly replaced it with her brother's old Sony Ericsson, and is using it with a prepaid TMobile plan. I have an iphone 4. I want to trade her phones for awhile to let her try it out and see if she'd want an iphone.

How can I use my iPhone with both my AT&T service and her prepaid TMobile plan?

I bought her a micro sim and had tMobile move her info to it today, and then put it into the iphone after the sim card was verified and working. It doesn't work. It works with other phones...

I don't want to jail break it, lose support or invalidate my AppleCare protection, but I do want her to be able to use the phone with her own service and her own phone number. How can I do this?

Posted on Sep 6, 2011 6:16 PM

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Answer 1

gdgmacguy

Level 7

21,891 points

Sep 6, 2011 6:22 PM in response to Joey Delli Gatti

You CANNOT use your iPhone which is locked to AT&T with a SIM from T-Mobile. AT&T does not unlock Iphones for use with other carriers. The only way your wife can use her T-Mobile SIM card with an iPhone is if you purchase a factory unlocked iPhone directly from Apple.

T-Mobile is NOT an official carrier of the iPhone. As such, the phone is crippled when using it with T-Mobile. You will not have access to visual voicemail, there is no 3G network so data will be at the horribly slow EDGE speeds, you will not be able to have MMS, and FaceTime won't work.

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Answer 2

Sep 6, 2011 9:44 PM in response to gdgmacguy

Thanks for the response. I'll refrain from bad-mouthing AT&T for crippling my iPhone and charging to unlock features that are free and standard with other companies...

So, after my contract is up with AT&T in about a year, is there a way to do a factory unlock? How much would it cost? I know this is sort of off topic, but I'm curious now.

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Answer 3

gdgmacguy

Level 7

21,891 points

Sep 6, 2011 10:13 PM in response to Joey Delli Gatti

AT&T will never unlock that phone, regardless if the contract is up.

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