AT&T iPhone Unlimited Data Plan and You

In the middle of the summer AT&T announced its grand new tiered data plans and pricing. Everyone gasped in the glory at the new offerings and confetti rained from the heavens. Except for you. You weren’t all that thrilled. You hadn’t bought your new love yet, but was hoping to soon. And now you are ineligible for the unlimited data plan. Well I have a secret for you. You can get it back. Legally, and without jailbreaking your phone and putting its warranty to rest.

But first I’m going to make you read through this spiel. Here is some background information in regards to AT&T’s decision. A study done by AT&T has shown that most smart phone users in general never peeked over 2 gigs of data usage a month. What’s more, this trend continued for iPhone users as well. It just wasn’t normal to use that much data apparently. Doing a little web surfing, checking Facebook every five minutes, and pulling down that email just isn’t all that data intensive. That’s just the normal user’s habit.

Other issues were price. A lot of customer didn’t like the $30 pricing point for data alone. That’s a whole other ISP connection that can only be used on your phone. Many, many other customers were interested in the iPhone, but just not the data plan.

So here’s what happened. AT&T announced a tiered data plan. A $15 and $25 plan. The $15 plan is a budget plan designed mostly just to receive email. The $15 pricing point is a whole lot easier to swallow then $30 and opened up a whole new market for customers that wanted that smart phone, but not the data plan. The $25 price point was still cheaper then $30 and saved most of the average users a few bucks a month. No one is going to argue with a couple dollars. And AT&T’s thinking was with so many hot spots open in most major communities, very little data would have to be used, further enabling customers to cut their costs.

So that’s the background on the tiered plans. But if you’re like me, your are data hungry. You eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, three snacks, and give the left overs to your dogs. Unfortunately you haven’t bought the iPhone yet and you’re stuck. This isn’t the case. Here is a fun loop hole. The original iPhone, the old silver 2G model, still has unlimited data for $20 a month. That can’t be changed. When you activate a 2G iPhone, you have to complete the process through iTunes. iTunes only offers the $20 unlimited data plan.

But you don’t want the 2G. It’s old news. Here’s the secret. If you have the $20 unlimited plan, AT&T has to grandfather you into the unlimited data plan for newer iPhones. What does this mean for you? Well, only a small additional cost or a good friend. If you activate a 2G iPhone under your line, and then call AT&T to change IMEIs or upgrade to an iPhone, AT&T will grandfather you to the $30 unlimited plan. This includes the iPhone 4. Plans can be changed and adjusted as needed in or out of contract. Meaning if you currently have a MediaNet package, or a smart phone plan, you can still activate a 2G iPhone under your line, and then do the upgrade or call and make the switch. You just need to find an old 2G iPhone.

So now you know. And knowing is half the battle.