Advice on phone issues

[archibaldcrane]

My wife has an iPhone 4, that her work paid for. It's on AT&T. She's switching jobs though, so she needs to put the phone on a different plan.

Obviously it would be the most cost-effective for us to get a family plan somewhere. I'm currently using an ancient Galaxy S 4G on t-mobile, and hope to upgrade to the Galaxy S4 when it comes out - but not sure which carrier to use.

Can her iPhone 4 be hooked up to any network other than AT&T? If not, are there any monthly AT&T plans (or sub-carriers)? I don't want to have to start a new 2-year contract for her, but she's going to be off her work's plan by the end of next week.

Her phone works fine for her, she doesn't need a new one by any means.

[archibaldcrane]

Hmm, I see AT&T has this Gophone monthly shit, maybe I'll just set her up on that until I want to take us both to a family plan.

[archibaldcrane]

Hmm, looks like you have to engage in some chicanery using another phone's sim card to make your iphone work on AT&T GoPhone...and it doesn't port your number over.

hmm

[Tyche]

Straight talk. $45 a month for unlimited talk, text, web. Can shoose between a number of gsm services, but since she had an AT&T account, I'd go for an AT&T sim. And they port your number as long as it's still active.

[Tyche]

Also, if she has completed the contract with that phone, AT&T will unlock it for her and she can use it on other GSM providers (T-Mobile). Straight Talk also offers T-Mobile sims.

[Cliron]

Seconding Straight talk for a cheap good phone service. Its basically a cheaper way of using either AT&T or Tmobile, since they piggyback from that network.

Huge negative is their customer service though. I lost my phone on new years and often their phones would be so busy it wouldn't even let me wait on line. And, when I finally got through they fucked up sending me the proper sim card...3 times.

I eventually just moved back to Tmobile. With Straight talk...when the going is good, great, but when something goes wrong your screwed.

[archibaldcrane]

Wait, I'm dumb.

Her iPhone 4 is on Verizon.

How does this affect the situation? I'm more inclined to start a family Verizon acct, but of course the SGS4S hasn't been released yet. Straight Talk won't work for a Verizon phone right? Is there a Verizon equivalent?

[Intervention]

Not super sure how good their service is, but I've remember seeing Simple mobile being thrown around various tech sites I've read.

Worse case toughing out till some time mid year may be worth it, cause tmobile is supposed to be adjusting their spectrum to work with the iPhone.

[archibaldcrane]

Hmm, Page Plus is a Verizon reseller, that people have hooked an iPhone 4 up to. Looks like it could be a winner?

[Intervention]

Hmm, Page Plus is a Verizon reseller, that people have hooked an iPhone 4 up to. Looks like it could be a winner?

If the iPhone is from Verizon, the first batch that came out are unlocked and can be used in ATT. Not an iPhone user here so I'm not sure how to find out it is.

[Buffy]

If the iPhone is from Verizon, the first batch that came out are unlocked and can be used in ATT. Not an iPhone user here so I'm not sure how to find out it is.

Are we sure about that? Doesn't AT&T and Verizon have different network architecture?

[archibaldcrane]

Anyone ever use Page Plus? I'm thinking thats the answer here...

[Intervention]

Are we sure about that? Doesn't AT&T and Verizon have different network architecture?

I mistook it for the iPhone 5, I believe it is cheaper for Apple to mass produce one phone that works on multiple bands.

http://m.cnet.com/news/verizon-iphon...-at&t/57518379

[archibaldcrane]

Trying to port to Page Plus now (pain in the ass since it was a business account that it is porting from). May just go with the $29.99 1200 minutes/3000 texts/250MB plan - 5 cents per minute/text/MB after that. She doesn't use her phone that much, and that is a killer deal for being on Verizon's network.

[Intervention]

That's pretty good, I personally be worried about the data. But it's pay as you go so if it don't work out you can dump it. Could always port your number to Google Voice so you don't have to deal with the problems of jumping carriers.

[archibaldcrane]

Well, my wife's ex-company can't seem to provide the information that Page Plus needs to port the number over. Not sure if it's a fault on Page Plus's end, since they aren't set up well to port from business accounts, or if her former company is just straight up giving incorrect info. Page Plus keeps saying the password is wrong.

We're just going to wait until her company stops paying and cuts off her phone, and then either start a new contract on page plus (new phone number) or just do Verizon's pre-paid $60/mo for unlimited t/t+500mb data.

Very frustrating process.

Maybe they'll keep paying it long enough for the Galaxy S4 to come out and then we can just start up a family plan on verizon.

[Intervention]

Well, my wife's ex-company can't seem to provide the information that Page Plus needs to port the number over. Not sure if it's a fault on Page Plus's end, since they aren't set up well to port from business accounts, or if her former company is just straight up giving incorrect info. Page Plus keeps saying the password is wrong.

That's pretty weird they are having issues with porting the number. I worked in cell phone sales for 2 years, from what I remember you only really need the phone number to port, and maybe the account number. I don't remember needing a password in order to do it. A lot of issues usually deal with contracts not being over and they don't want to pay the fee.