Prepaid Data Plan by swapping SIM card

Here is a fact: In order to use the Verizon iPhone 4s you are going to have to activate it. The 4s does not support LTE so your SIM will provide you no assistance whatsoever and the prepaid SIM will not work with Verizons network.

While it's true that this won't work with a Verizon iPhone 4S, it will work with any Verizon LTE-equipped phone (including the Verizon iPhone 5, 5S, and lots of Android smartphones). Verizon's 700 MHz C-Block LTE spectrum license requires that all its LTE devices be completely factory unlocked, and that its LTE SIM cards and their associated plans be interoperable between compatible equipment - tablets, smartphones, MiFis, jetpacks, everything (http://support.verizonwireless.com/support/faqs/VZAccess/4g_sim_card.html). This means you can take a data-only SIM out of a tablet, put it in a smartphone, and have access to that same data plan on your phone (see http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1465636 and https://medium.com/p/ce935d1aee5d). This is the same set of regulations that require Verizon not to restrict access to tethering apps on LTE devices, and which probably precipitated the inclusion of tethering in their mobile share plans (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57485518-94/what-verizons-fcc-tethering-settlem ent-means-to-you-faq/).

A couple weeks ago, I called a local Verizon store to ask about trying this. They told me that in order to start a new data-only plan, they would only need the IMEI number of the device to be activated - not the device itself. However, since they can't start these plans out with a smartphone IMEI (due to their store computer system's limitations), you would need to activate the plan with the IMEI of a tablet or other LTE device first, and then transfer the SIM to your phone. So if you have access to an unused LTE tablet, this would be a pretty straightforward process. If you don't, another option would be to buy an iPad and activate your data plan using its IMEI (usually located next to the bar code on the outside of the box), and then return it to the store unopened for a refund.

Ken2G5- you are correct, it will not work with the 4s because it does not support LTE. However, the reasons provided by these guys who seem to troll around on the apple support forum and provide rude condescending answers are incorrect. Your LTE sims will work on any device. If you have a SIM card originally from a phone and it has a voice and data plan, it will work in a USB data card, a tablet, or an ipad that can utilize LTE. I use my sim from my employers unlimited data phone plan in multiple devices (an Ipad, a usb data card, and a wifi hotspot). The sim cards are different sizes, but you can buy a $3 adapter to make it fit in to a larger spot.

The problem is going from a SIM from a data card to an iphone IF it is not the micro card. So that is the real question.. you would need another micro SIM and then it would work.

On a side note, it is so funny how brave and rude people can be on these forums. You don't have to see them to their face, and its your one little area of life that you might know more than the average person, so you run around on here acting all condescending to other people... little people. This is why you have no friends.

Should be noted that Verizon prepaid data plans do not currently support 4G LTE... 3G only.

But wouldn't this work with a regular ipad data plan (non-prepaid) just as well?

I disagree with everyone on here.

I have a prepaid ipad mini and a 2 year contract iphone 5s. I have used my ipad nano sim in my iphone and it fully worked for LTE data.

Also I have LTE service on both devices, as available.

I'm confused about what you wrote below... let's say I want to do this with my ipone 5s (out of contract w Verizon). How would I get an ipad data plan onto the nano sim in my iphone 5s?

Or if, as you say I bought an ipad and activated my data plan using its IMEI, wouldn't the nano sim of the ipad then carry that data plan? And by returning it, unopened, that now-activated-sim gets returned with it?

to get it into my iphone, i'd have to open the ipad box right? Or are you suggesting swappign sims?

Would appreciate a clarification. Thanks!

A couple weeks ago, I called a local Verizon store to ask about trying this. They told me that in order to start a new data-only plan, they would only need the IMEI number of the device to be activated - not the device itself. However, since they can't start these plans out with a smartphone IMEI (due to their store computer system's limitations), you would need to activate the plan with the IMEI of a tablet or other LTE device first, and then transfer the SIM to your phone. So if you have access to an unused LTE tablet, this would be a pretty straightforward process. If you don't, another option would be to buy an iPad and activate your data plan using its IMEI (usually located next to the bar code on the outside of the box), and then return it to the store unopened for a refund.

"...it will work with any Verizon LTE-equipped phone (including the Verizon iPhone 5, 5S, and lots of Android smartphones)...This means you can take a data-only SIM out of a tablet, put it in a smartphone, and have access to that same data plan on your phone..."

Just an update that this is still true as of June 2014. I bought a Verizon iPhone 5s from an Apple store at the unsubsidized price. I activated the phone with Apple via iTunes (connected to an iMac), then replaced the phone SIM (still not activated with Verizon) with an already activated iPad SIM. The iPhone had LTE data.

Note that when I checked the account on Verizon's website, it clearly showed the device on the data plan (1 GB for $20/mo) as an iPhone 5s. We'll see if Verizon objects when the data plan automatically renews next week.