Iphone 3g vs smartphone 3g

S

Slothrop

New member
I currently have a smartphone with unlimited 3g internet plan. I also have a slightly damaged iphone that for the most part, works perfectly. Even as a test I put my sim card into the iPhone and everything work, even the internet and 3g. I am able to contact AT&T via my companies account because I some times have to set up phones for other users (I am end user support) and they said it would cost more for the iphone 3g and I can bet I would have to pay to cancel and re-add the iphone 3g to get the correct 3g. So my question is is there any reason I need to even tell them I am switching to the iphone and just keep going on? The tech I talked to said I wouldn't be able to get calls if I didn't tell them the updated imei number that my sim is using but I tested it, and the iphone would receive calls and from experience with temp phones for my end users, there have been no problems. My reasoning is the iPhone is, well awesome, but I know my company, in these hard times, would not want to waste the extra cash so I can have a cool toy. Also the reason I don't just switch to it, is because I am afraid AT&T will charge extra because its supposable a different 3g. I heard that someone tried to use their phone as a modem and ended up getting charged thousands of dollars. Now if this was my personal plan I wouldn't care about a small extra charge (i would wait to till the end of the pay period to test it to keep any extra charge down), but this is the companies phone plan, and I don't pay anything for the phone, that and I like my job =P. So I am curious if there really is any difference between the iphone 3g and the smartphone 3g. If anyone knows, any help is much appriciated.

Thank you,
 
If by smartphone you mean a PDA Personal data plan costing $30.00 per month, the Data Plan for iPhone 3G costs the same thing and is required by AT&T Mobility if you use an iPhone 3G on a line. If by smartphone you mean the grandfathered smartphone data plan for $19.99 per month, you will have to change to the Data Plan for iPhone 3G.

By the way, there is no such thing as a 3G data plan of any kind. A data plan for a particular phone costs the same regardless of the connection speed.
 
There is a difference between a smart phone and a PDA phone. Basically a smartphone is non-touchscreen where the PDA Phone is touch screen. So for example the blackjack would be a smartphone, where the Tilt or the HTC Fuze would be a PDA phone. I may have these phrases turned around but that is how I have always called them and there is a difference between their data plans (price wise if I remember correctly, which may have changed since I last heard this). As for the data plan prices for businesses it is a little more expensive to allow for MS Exchange email syncing. For the pda/smart phone it is $40 and the iphone is $45.

Now you said that the data plan for the iphone is required by AT&T but if I have the unlimited data plan for the PDA/smart phone, do I really need the AT&T iphon data plan? Thats what I am trying to figure out. Like I said, everything appears to work, but I don't know if AT&T can tell which device is being used to pull the data from their 3g network.
 
AT&T does not distinguish between the former Microsoft Smartphone and other smartphones, including the former Pocket PC, in determining which data plan is required. All phones having an external QWERTY keyboard with either the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system (Standard or Professional), Palm or Symbian operating systems require a PDA data plan, if a data plan is chosen. The former smartphone data plan for $19.99 is no longer offered. An iPhone or BlackBerry devices requires a specific data plan. Messaging phones with external QWERTY keyboards without the above operating systems may use conventional data plans. All conventional phones may use the Data Unlimited (former MEdia Net Unlimited) data plan. Unbranded PDAs may currently use the data plan for conventional phones. One would have to get a BlackBerry data plan even for an unbranded BlackBerry device for full BlackBerry functionality.
 
First off, efparri thank you for your help you seam to be very informed on this.

So let me get specific. I first had a Pantec Duo, which sucked, so when a cingular 3125 became available I switched to that. I have the Data Unlimited data plan for this device and there was no plan changes needed to be done to switch between the phones. We recently got a water logged iPhone which after letting it dry out worked fine except for a bad right speaker and some slight streaks on the screen. I want to just put my sim card into this iphone and use it as my phone with the current data plan so I don't have to change my plan or pay extra for the business iPhone plan. Can I do this or will AT&T notice a difference and charge me for it?
 
The PanTech Duo should have had a PDA data plan since it is sold by AT&T Mobility as a PDA. The Cingular 3125 qualified for a conventional data plan since it did not have an external QWERTY keyboard although it ran on the Windows Mobile operating system.

As soon as you start using the iPhone, AT&T Mobility will detect the phone and notify you by text messages of the requirement to have the Data Plan for iPhone 3G.
 
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