Dumb question? AT&T BlackBerry to Iphone 3GS

[he46570]

Hi, all. I apologize if this is a dumb question. I have read conflicting views on this, and I'd love your input.

I have a BlackBerry from work, with AT&T. This account is taken care of by my company, so I don't have control over the account at all. It obviously has both voice and data.

I'd like to upgrade to an iPhone 3GS. I'm happy to buy something of eBay that's already jailbroken and unlocked. But I'd like to ensure I can simply swap out the SIM and start using it with voice, data and with iTunes.

I know AT&T can detect the IMEI, so I'm worried that if I'm on a cheaper data plan, AT&T will block data on the phone.

Are my concerns unfounded? Thanks in advance.

[Michael Johnston]

If your work is already paying for a $30 data plan along with voice, you should be able to use your iPhone with it, no problem. AT&T sells brand new iPhones without a contract, so you could go that route. You could also just get a locked AT&T iPhone off eBay. I don't believe you'd need to unlock it if you're using it on AT&T.

[he46570]

Wow... interesting. I guess I'll call AT&T tomorrow and confirm that I'm on a $30 data plan. After that I should be good, I guess. Thanks so much for your help!

[he46570]

OK, so I called AT&T to confirm.

They said that a $30 per month BlackBerry data plan is different from a $30 per month iPhone plan. They said I would need to migrate onto the iPhone plan at some stage.

They also said that they can, and do, detect whether you're using an iPhone by an IMEI number query. Apparently they do these checks on a regular basis. This would mean that substituting in your SIM card will allow your phone to work, at least initially - but following their check, they would automatically disable your data service until you officially migrate onto an iPhone data plan.

I have no idea whether this is really true, but that's the company line according to a support guy in small business accounts...

[Michael Johnston]

That sounds pretty accurate. You should ask your company about it. If there'd be no change in cost (I don't think there would be) then it should be ok.

[renskebuursma4]

If your company allows you to change your blackberry to iphone why not?

[kikoglo]

did you after you changed your sim were you able to get internet just with the signal or only when you were using wi-fi. I did the exact same thing you wanted to do and internet applications work only on wi-fi but if im in the car i cant access my mail.... do you know what to do ??

[JFrappuccino]

I personally feel as though if that was a scare tactic used by AT&T, your best bet would be to purchase an iPhone that is already unlocked and activated, then insert your sim into the phone.
You should encounter no problems and I think that whole imei query is a bunch of balderdash.