Will unlocking a 1 Gen keep me from getting charged Data plan?

[Toymaker]

I just bought a used iPhone 1st Gen for my Wife and she doesn't plan on using the data service, but we can't seem to get around that as it is out of the box. Now before I get flamed by everyone who can't understand not having it, please don't go there. My wife is a stay at home mom of two young kids and when she goes out she doesn't have time to surf the web or email. When she's out she wants to listen to music in the car or take a quick picture or use the phone- that's it. At home after the kids are in bed she likes to surf, email or play games via WiFi.

So my question is if I was able to unlock / jailbreak the iPhone will it allow me to use our AT&T service without them charging us for the Data service? Or do we need to switch providers? Will their computer system eventually see that we have an unlocked iPhone and charge us the data plan anyway?

 

[mth785]

I believe that you would have to switch t-mobile to avoid having a data plan.

 

[Jeremy]

Nope, there is no way to unlock it for AT&T just jailbreak. Even then AT&T will notice it's a iPhone and eventually force you into a data plan. If you went to t-mobile with it you could get away with no data plan.

 

[jessejames4#IM]

Sadly, in order to quickly move ATT over to a more realistic viewpoint on the no-data iphone plan, a class action lawsuit would be required. It would take a large group of single-minded irate iphone users to get this done and I just don't see this happening. I do believe though that there's got to be a judge somewhere that would listen to a case where it clearly shows that ATT is forcing customers into taking a 1st gen iphone data plan they don't want or need. Calling on all class-action lawsuit attorneys....

There was that Polish turbo-sim that worked for a while and I've been told that there currently is software that will fool ATT but these are both "illegal." I have not been able to locate the software but I continue to look.

In my case, I PwnTooled my used 1st gen iphone, so now it's unlocked and jailbroken, but I still can't use the sim card from my previous ATT Blackberry
no-data plan phone so basically I have an itouch with wifi. I keep getting the "Hook up to itunes" message and it's stuck in the emergency phone-call mode until I put the original sim card back in.

I don't see why ATT could not offer a no-data plan to used 1st gen iphone users when they could charge a one time reg fee, say $10-$15 and have everybody "legal."


Jesse

 

[crossover496]

WHAT? I have an iphone unlocked with my att sim in, works fine not EDGE service available. Its shut off and if i shut wifi off i cant get online. So am I being charged for EDGE? Because If I am Im not getting it?

 

[blakejackson]

IF you found a way to make this work, it wouldn't be long before the system did a scan and found the iphone with no data plan attached. All it takes is a simple, automated switch in the system and your phone would immediately stop working, and it would take an awkward call into customer service to get her service turned back on at all. I would recommend getting your wife an ipod touch, that way she could have the best of both worlds. As far as a lawsuit goes, you cant buy ANY blackberry from verizon without the data package. Carriers such as at&t and verizon subsidize data phones more than standard phones because they plan to get that subsidy back in data plan charges. Thats why the new 3g iphone costs at&t over $400, but consumers are able to buy it for $200.