I purchased a VZW phone yesterday from Apple and then went to the AT&T store for a SIM card. The card was activated without an IMEI number and all features seemed to work except the hotspot function.
I used the online chat function this morning from my desktop machine and the rep converted my account into an "iPhone" account so that the mobile hotspot would work. In doing so, I lost the ability to send/receive SMS/MMS. According to the AT&T rep, the deivce was being treated as data only in their system. They have opened a ticket and will be escalating the issue. I am hopeful they can force a change behind the scenes. If not, I will move to a new IMEI from an Android phone to get access to the SMS/MMS functionality again.
B