I love my iPhone. I love all the apps available for the iPhone. I love the easy text messaging on my iPhone. For all that there is to love with the iPhone, there’s one thing I hate about it; the bill! I got my iPhone the week they came out and loved it from the start. However, when my two year contract with AT&T was up, I cancelled the service and have been using the iPhone as basically an iTouch. I use it on WiFi to surf the web, and use it to play my music. But not being a big phone talker, I just could justify keeping the service and paying almost $100 a month.
That was then and I’m back using my iPhone on the AT&T network, but I don’t have a contract and I don’t pay $100 a month. You see, I’m using my iPhone with AT&T’s prepaid cellular service GoPhone. Now AT&T doesn’t really advertise that the iPhone will work with it’s GoPhone service (they want you in a multi-year contract not on a month to month pay as you go plan). But it works, and it works well.
With your iPhone on GoPhone, you can talk, text, surf the web; everything you can do when you’re on a contract with AT&T. The only thing an iPhone on the GoPhone network can’t do is use iPhone’s visual voice mail. That means you’ll have to call your voice mail and listen to the messages in order. Other than that, GoPhone for iPhone works like a charm. And you don’t have to jailbreak your phone and it’s simple to get setup and started.
First of all, of course, you need an iPhone. It doesn’t have to be a new one. It can be an old one you have laying around the house or one you bought cheap on eBay.
Once you have the iPhone, you need a SIM card from GoPhone. The cheapest way to get one, and how I got mine, is head to your local Target or BestBuy and buy a cheap GoPhone. You can often find them on sale for $10. Just buy the cheapest one because you don’t need the actual phone, just the SIM card that’s in the package.
Once you have the GoPhone, open the package and take out the SIM card but do not put it into your iPhone. Go to the GoPhone activation site and enter the SIM card number (number that begins 8901) and the IMEI number found on the bottom of the GoPhone packaging.
Once you’ve activated the SIM card, you’ll get your new telephone number and then select a GoPhone plan. I selected the $25 plan that included 300 minutes and unlimited texting. You can select just a data plan if you don’t plan on using your iPhone to make and receive calls and texts.
Once you’ve done that, put the GoPhone SIM card into the iPhone and turn on the phone. You should see “AT&T” and status bars in the top left. Congratulations, you’re in the AT&T network without a contract!
The final step is to ensure that data will work with your iPhone. This step is the most technical but it’s not difficult at all. And it’s not jail breaking your phone, either. Rather you’re just updating the APN (or data settings) for your phone. From the iPhone’s web browser (you’ll need to be on WiFi for this) go to unlockit.co . Select “Cingular” as your wireless carrier and choose accept. Save the new profile and you’re done.
That’s it, you’ve now got a fully functioning iPhone without a contract!