Text Message From ATT after moving SIM Card from 5S

Being British I could be wrong, but the only contract-free iPhone I can see in the US store is T-mobile?

Others will have to add to this, but as far as I know 'contract free' is not at all the same as 'unlocked'. You may like to research yourself.

I'll let you know. I intend to do the same thing albeit from an unlocked iPhone 5 to the "contract-free" iPhone 6 using an AT&T SIM. According to UPS, my new phone is still "out for delivery" (sigh).

I'm wondering if the text you received results from noting a different IMEI number, and that a new SIM wouldn't make any difference, but perhaps a quick call or visit to an AT&T store to update the IMEI they have on file will "address" this? Is visual voicemail working properly?

AT&T maybe looking for their $40.00 activation fee???

I got the same text. No idea why...

And ditto, I'm on att with contact free t-mobile iphone 64gb

I also received the message.

I am on ATT and put my iPhone 5 SIM into my new contracted 6 I purchased using a family members upgrade. Phone seems to be working fine without a new SIM.

Seems like they should tell us why we should go out of our way to get something we don't seem to really need...

I got the same text, and everything seems to be working fine. I'll be near an ATT store tomorrow I'm going to stop in and ask what it's all about.

And I bought the t-mobile contract free 64GB iPhone 6.

I'm disappointed to share that my experience hasn't been so smooth. Moving the AT&T SIM card from my iPhone 5 to the new iPhone 6 (A1428 -- contract free) did enable VOICE and TEXT operations, but no data. I have NOT received the text message the original poster described and others have also seen.

Before even powering up the iPhone 6, I moved my iPhone 5's AT&T SIM into the iPhone 6. I powered up the iPhone 6 and connected it via USB to my MacBook Pro and fired up iTunes. iTunes first raised a box stating something to the effect that there were new carrier settings and did I want to proceed. I selected yes and then was prompted to choose either a new phone or restore from backup. I chose the latter.

At first, all appeared to be okay with "AT&T" and five strength bars illuminated at top left, but for data is showed "4G". However, launching any data-app (e.g. Mail or Safari) resulted in: Could not activate cellular data network. You are not subscribed to a cellular data service.

I checked settings, toggled the Cellular->Cellular Data off and back on. Ensured Enable LTE was set. With or without LTE, I consistently was presented with the previously mentioned message about the inability to activate cellular data. If I enable WiFi, I'm able to use it, but no cellular data.

I contacted AT&T via land-line phone. Was handed off to advanced technical support. They tried various things on their end, including first, updating my IMEI. None of their efforts resulted in any change in behavior.

I shared with them that there appeared to be other folks who have succeeded doing this. This ushered in a discussion of a distinction between PREPAID and POSTPAID accounts. I have a PREPAID account. After all, I don't need to use a significantly more expensive POSTPAID as I'm not under any contract. The theory is that there may be an issue of their "back end" handling of PREPAID SIM cards. So, I currently have two avenues to pursue. The AT&T tech suggested I go into a store tomorrow and request a new PREPAID SIM and see if that fixes it. It might, but then it might not. AT&T has also opened a special "case file" for this issue which they intend to work, but I was told I probably won't hear back from that until next week.

I stopped at the AT&T store this morning and showed them the text message. I told them that the phone works fine and they seemed confused. They thought is was for Apple Pay and that it needed a NFC SIM. (not sure about that one) but apparently it didn't need an NFC SIM, although I've never heard of that.

They set me up with someone to check to see if the SIM was valid/OK. They said they asked if I called the number that comes with the phone to activate it, I said no I just put them SIM in and turned it on. (I did not tell them I bought the contract free iPhone).

When the rep called the automated number to check the SIM, the system told him that it was having technical difficulties. The rep seemed to think that the text was actually late, the phone activated before AT&T sent the text. He told me not to worry about it since everything is working but if I had trouble to call him.

At this point everything is working, I'm going to wait and see if I have any issues. And I'll watch my bill to see if anything changes there.

Another interesting note, I went to do a late chat with AT&T and when the box came up to enter my Name it had already populated with my phone number and under device it listed iPhone 6.

One of the features they are alerting you to is voice over LTE (VoLTE).

True, I thought about that last night as well, but since they haven't started rolling it out in large quantities I can get a new SIM after all the iPhone 6 hoopla dies down...