Family Plan may allow iPhone 3G upgrade to a 3G S – sort of
There are many who ware dismayed to find that they are not eligible for a discounted price if they decide to upgrade their iPhone 3G to a 3GS.
In case you haven’t read about it already, amongst AT&T’s many missteps concerning the 3GS and the 3.0 update, those of us who bought 3G’s will have to pay $399.00 for a 16G or $499.00 for a 32G.
This is, of course, not the path chosen by AT&T for original iPhone owners who decided to upgrade to the 3G. Smelling extra revenue from the more expensive 3G plan surely inspired them to entice 3G upgrades a year ago; but this time, AT&T isn’t being quite so nice to their loyal customers — at least, not until March, which is apparently when the loyal customers get the same pricing as AT&T newcomers or those who haven’t upgraded in 18 months.
However, if you have a family plan, you may be able to upgrade after all. Here’s the gist:
When some got the original iPhone, some got a freebie phone as they moved to AT&T — and were fine with it, seeing no need for an iPhone. Fast forward to the launch of the 3G, and some finally decided to give it a try.
So when some discovered that they were ineligible for a $299.00 32G iPhone, sometimes the other member of family plan is eligible.
So just get the 3G on the family’s members line, then simply swap the SIM card. Hopefully, everyone will be happy — or at least, none the wiser. It’s not illegal really; the same family uses it and pays the bill.
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It is BS. It should be the same as last year. I will be one fo the people that will not be renewing and unlocking the phone to go with another carrier.
The reality is that the new features are nice, but if you have a 3G, is it really worth the coin for the new features? The chances of a new iphone next year at this time are pretty darn good and we lovers of the iphone will want that too!
Let’s face it, several of the “NEW” features could have been implented on the current 3G, like video & press to talk, it;s just software/firmware. I don’t recall Apple saying is was a faster processor either, just faster apps.
The real shame is that AT&T will most likely opt-out of tethering and make us wait for MMS.
All-in-All, I can wait 12 month and get the next cool stuff … can you?
3G….those people should be lucky. Be glad you didn’t buy a 1st Gen. 16 GB at $599 and then see the 3G come right behind it. Be thankful!
[...] eligible for an upgrade after 13 months while others aren’t eligible for 18 months? A blog post at iPhonesTalk thinks that it’s a wrinkle with the AT&T family plan and explains how to swap iPhones among [...]
I love your idea and I am going to do exactly that with my wife asap. I also have a website at http://www.iphonewz.com. If you have a chance check it out and let me know what you think I can do to improve it. Thank you for your idea. I love your website. Great Layout.
Thank you,
Josh Marino
Wouldn’t the person who was eligible for the upgrade be stuck with the iphone data plan instead of their original plan?
You could do that, but wouldn’t you be stuck paying for the Data Plan for both lines? That would end up costing as much or more in the long run as paying the “Early Upgrade Fee”. My mom has absolutely no need or want of an iPhone or the data plan and I don’t want to pay for a data plan no one is using and ATT won’t let you cancel your existing data plan without breaking your contract. Now if you bought your wife/husband/spouse/parent/dog an iPhone 1g while you yourself upgraded to 3g (both on the same family talk plan) this might work. But my other line is just a cheap Samsung flip phone. So I guess I am stuck till December (I bought the 3g on launch day and why I have to wait 18 months instead of 12 is beyond me, especially since I have payed my 110 dollar bill loyally for over 2 years.)
I have to say i’m really not sure what all the fuss is about over the new 3GS, lets be really honest it’s hardly a quantum leap on the exisiting 3G phone is it?
Sure the most important thing to come out of the WWDC was the date for the 3.0 software which we’ve all been waitingf for?
I love my 3G iPhone and my only gripes about it have been about the missing features such as MMS which in only a few days will be put to rest.
It’s fairly clear that there’ll be a new iPhone every June so as my contract still has 6 months to run i have no plans to pay a huge amount for a new iPhone that is slightly quicker than my last as i have no issues with it’s speed or camera and i certainly don’t need a compass.
I intend to wait until next June when the next iPhone will be released and hopefully that will be something to get excited about?
I do think O2 or AT&T need to start issueing 12 month contracts to enable people to upgrade every year if they wish to stop this situation from happening every time a new one is released.
Until then everyone take a deep breath and relax, if you really want to protest then save your money and don’t upgrade, Apple will not want to lose out and companies respond quicker to poor sales figures than they ever do to people complaining in forums or starting petitions.
Ive been trying to do the same (get a family talk plan with an iphone 3g s on the new line and a cheapo phone on the original line) (i have a 1st gen iphone now and will be downgrading it to a cheap phone for the sake of not paying for 2 data plans) and as long as you dont cancel your data plan for the cheapo phone you should be fine, just CHANGE it! you can go as low as $5.00 a month for 200 text messages which is great if the person on the cheapo phone doesnt need many text messages. Or just pay for unlimited shared family talk messages for $30 a month and that will be sharing the messages for both the iphone 3g s and the cheapo phone. I just called today to do the pre-order for the new iphone and open up that family talk line and as long as my mother agrees to it the ATT lady said there would be no problem. Basically for an iphone 3g s with the 1400 (89.99) family talk plan and the $30 iphone data plan and 1500 text messages ($15 per month) AND the other line with whatever cheapo phone (not an iphone) its $135 plus taxes/fees for both each month. Adding text to the cheapo phone if you dont get the shared unlimited text ($30) you could just add the 200 text for $5 and thats it! So CHANGE your plan, dont CANEL it and you should be good to go.
I am extreamly displeased with AT&T and Apple for the matter making it to where if we, their loyal customers want to spend money on the new phone that we are slapped in the face with an extra two hundred dollars. I think for making me wait till next year I may just go with a different phone carrier. How do you like the sound of that AT&T? Jerks!
I don’t think that will work. If line 1 qualifies for the upgrade, but line 2 doesn’t, then when you order an iphone 3GS for line 1, you will have to add the iphone data plan to line 1. If you then swap sim cards and put the line 2 sim card in the 3GS, then everytime you go online, AT&T will charge you for data transfer charges by the byte, and it is not cheap! Or, are you saying that AT&T will let you cancel the iphone data plan on one line, as long as you don’t cancel the line itself?
SIMPLY CANCEL THE CONTRACT
AT&T only charges a 175 early termination fee that is prorated at $5/month. So if you have a year on your contract you can simply cancel the contract at $85 then purchase a new iPhone at the new user rate!
ive got an iphone 3g 16 gb but i heard about iPhone 3g S and i want to upgrade majorly but im not on a plan and im not with AT&T im with Telstra does any one know how to help me?
one lady on the phone told me that would be possible to do about a week ago.
but today i went in to the store and another lady told me it’s not possible to upgrade on one eligible line and use it fo my line without having to charge both lines the data plan….
UNTIL…. apple sends them some code.. i forgot what she called it. but she said when the 3g came out, it wasnt possible until they got their weird access code or whatever it is 2 weeks later then they were able to do it… so basically she told me to come back in 2 weeks and just ask “if i can buy the upgrade on one line and use it for a different line” without being charged… so yeah we’ll see how that goes.
We are a 2 iPhone household as well that share a FamilyTalk plan. My number *primary” is eligible for an upgrade on July 13, 2009. AT&T is telling me that our second iPhone is not eligible until March 13, 2010 because that line is less profitable to AT&T. I had some very choice words for the rep, floor supervisor and supervisor I spoke with about my dissatisfaction over this policy.
We bought the original iPhone on the 1st day it was offered, we upgraded with no issues on the day the 3G was offered, now we are being screwed by a policy we were not made aware of. We pay $200+ each month for service, we paid top dollar for the 1st phone, we advocate and upsell AT&T & iPhone to everyone. When I asked that each phone be eligible for an upgrade now (after AT&T’s press release, offering existing 3G users the best pricing) the AT&T Supervisor, Kirsty Martin, quickly dumped all responsibility for the fact that she was not able to offer any assistance/discount/adjustment on any iPhone due to AT&T’s contract with Apple.
So it’s Apple’s fault that AT&T cannot make this right. I told her that I hoped another carrier gets the rights to carry the iPhone and before I could even finish my sentence she blurted out that the situation would be the same no matter who the carrier is due to the requirements of the agreement with Apple. So the villain is not AT&T, it’s really Apple! Talk about integrity, customer satisfaction and professionalism.
Make a bad, greed-focused policy, take a hit in the press, magnanimously “change your position”, still manage to alienate your long-time, loyal customers and then blame the supplier of the phone you offer your service on. Nice spin.
AT&T has changed it’s position alright. Instesd of giving it to me on my side, now they are giving it to me doggy-style and I didn’t even get a kiss…
Same here with a 2 iphone family plan (both 3g)) except the primary line is the one that they don’t want to upgrade until March… Any advice?
9b
Same problem here. One of our iPhones qualifies but the other doesn’t. March 17, 2010. Ridiculous.
Same problem here. Purchased 3G the day it released but because my monthly bill is a few dollars less than what ATT felt was the cutoff, I now have to wait till dec to upgrade to the 3GS. This is BS!!
Honestly, ever since Cingular merged with AT&T, the service has sucked nuts. Cingular was always so great with Customer service, especially to their loyal customers.
We’ve been on a family plan for SEVEN YEARS and AT&T is slapping us in the face when we want to spend a little extra cash for a nice Iphone. We can’t carry over our existing UNLIMITED DATA $9.99. We have to use the “special iphone plan” which is NO different. Plus they charge you out the ass for switching from the existing plan they wont let you keep, to the iphone plan. And, of course, they don’t tell you this when you buy the phone either…. I am going to suck it up, pay the cancellation fee and move to Verizon or TMobile. I HATE AT&T…we want Cingular back!!!!
Screw you AT&T…you will lose so many people with your crappy customer service and outrageous plans… you may think you’re making money now, but in the end you’ll have no customers if you keep this up!
I bought an 3Gs iphone, put in my sim card with family data plan ($10 each line unlimited), I can not browse the net and its locked my sim, call AT&T, and play dumb, (my web browser does not work), they reset again.
So they want $30 for individual and if I sign, I will lost my family plan, this is really suck