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DotCom2's profile

Mentor

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83 Messages

Sunday, October 9th, 2011 4:33 PM

iPhone 4S switcheroo?

I am still confused on how to do this.  Can someone please explain step by step how this is done?

Here is my situation:

Hubs and I are on a Family Plan.  I am the primary.  He has an eligible upgrade line with his iPhone 4.  I have an iPhone 3GS.

I ordered a new iPhone 4S on  his eligible line for me.  So when the new iPhone 4S arrives there is going to be 3 phones involved here. His ip4 that he wants to keep, my old 3GS and the new iP4S. I understand that the new 2 yr contract will go on his line now.  Sooo when the new iP4s arrives I know there is SIM card swaps involved here but there are three phones???  So which sim goes in which phone?  Also, do I activate anything before switching sims?  And isn't the SIM from my old 3GS a diff size than the current iphones?  I know that I can take the phones down to an ATT store but they might be incredibily busy that day.

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Teacher

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15 Messages

12 years ago

Do what it says in the second posts. Call customer service before activating the phone so they can switch it over to your line. Otherwise, if you just activate the phone immediately, your husbands phone will stop working and the new 4s will be on his line. You shouldn't have to switch out any sim cards. They just need to switch the 4s to your line first. This way when you activate the new sim card in the 4s, it goes on your line. Its pretty straight forward. Hope this helps.

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Scholar

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346 Messages

12 years ago


@DotCom2 wrote:

So what do I do then?

I don't do anything to the phones at all and disregard the instructions in the email and either call them or go down to an ATT store?  Last time we did the swap it wasn't on a launch day so I just walked into an ATT store and they just did it for us but that's going to be rather difficult this time.  So there is no way I can just do this myself then?
 


 Yes, you have to disregard the instructions in the email. You can activate the new iPhone 4S by calling 611 or going to an AT&T corporate store.

 

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB411310&cv=820&ct=800347&pv=3&title=Apply+an+eligible+upgrade+toward+a+different+line+on+your+plan#fbid=jZzMjGcuRDN

Scholar

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346 Messages

12 years ago

Did you order online? If so, don't activate the new phone using the instructions in the email. Just call AT&T to explain that you're trying to do a complex upgrade and that you want to activate the iPhone 4S with your number. With any luck, the whole process might not even involve any SIM switching at all.

Scholar

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331 Messages

12 years ago


@DotCom2 wrote:

I am still confused on how to do this.  Can someone please explain step by step how this is done?

Here is my situation:

Hubs and I are on a Family Plan.  I am the primary.  He has an eligible upgrade line with his iPhone 4.  I have an iPhone 3GS.

I ordered a new iPhone 4S on  his eligible line for me.  So when the new iPhone 4S arrives there is going to be 3 phones involved here. His ip4 that he wants to keep, my old 3GS and the new iP4S. I understand that the new 2 yr contract will go on his line now.  Sooo when the new iP4s arrives I know there is SIM card swaps involved here but there are three phones???  So which sim goes in which phone?  Also, do I activate anything before switching sims?  And isn't the SIM from my old 3GS a diff size than the current iphones?  I know that I can take the phones down to an ATT store but they might be incredibily busy that day.


When you upgrade the existing iPhone 4, it will stop working as soon as you activate the new 4S that is replacing it. The SIM won't be active on AT&T's network any longer.

 

In order to keep all three phones working, you will have to activate a new line.

 

Alternatively, if you only want the 4S and 4 working, once you have activated the 4S (assuming your contract has been fulfilled on the 3GS), go to the store and have them replace the 3GS on your existing line with the 4. At that point, the 4S will be working on his existing line, his 4 will be working on your existing 3GS line, and your 3GS won't work any longer.

 

And yes, the SIM in a 3GS is a different size than the SIM in a 4 or 4S.

Mentor

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83 Messages

12 years ago

Yes, I ordered online through ATT and it's expected to be delivered Oct 14th.

So you are saying NOT to do what ATT's email told me to do???

Scholar

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331 Messages

12 years ago


@DotCom2 wrote:

Yes, I ordered online through ATT and it's expected to be delivered Oct 14th.

So you are saying NOT to do what ATT's email told me to do???


You ordered a new 4S through his number, but want it to work on your old 3GS number? Why didn't you just upgrade your 3GS number instead?

Mentor

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83 Messages

12 years ago

Either you are not understanding me or I am not understanding you.

What we want to do is I get the new iPhone 4S to replace my 3GS and he stays with the iPhone 4 but it's his line we used to upgrade.  So I don't quite understand all you are saying. N\My 3GS line's contract has not been fulfilled hence the ordering on his line for me.

Mentor

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83 Messages

12 years ago

Because my line wasn't eligible and his was.

We used my line to get his iphone 4 last time and the new 2 yr contract went with me.

Scholar

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331 Messages

12 years ago


@DotCom2 wrote:

Either you are not understanding me or I am not understanding you.

What we want to do is I get the new iPhone 4S to replace my 3GS and he stays with the iPhone 4 but it's his line we used to upgrade.  So I don't quite understand all you are saying. N\My 3GS line's contract has not been fulfilled hence the ordering on his line for me.


It's not that simple. Even though they look the same, the SOC code for the 4S data plan is different. His number will be provisioned with a different (under the hood) data plan than your 3GS number is. Swapping all that is going to involve a lot more than simply swapping SIMs between the two 4 model phones.

 

 

Mentor

 • 

83 Messages

12 years ago


@dww0311 wrote:

@DotCom2 wrote:

Either you are not understanding me or I am not understanding you.

What we want to do is I get the new iPhone 4S to replace my 3GS and he stays with the iPhone 4 but it's his line we used to upgrade.  So I don't quite understand all you are saying. N\My 3GS line's contract has not been fulfilled hence the ordering on his line for me.


It's not that simple. Even though they look the same, the SOC code for the 4S data plan is different. His number will be provisioned with a different (under the hood) data plan than your 3GS number is. Swapping all that is going to involve a lot more than simply swapping SIMs between the two 4 model phones.

 

 


So what do I do then?

I don't do anything to the phones at all and disregard the instructions in the email and either call them or go down to an ATT store?  Last time we did the swap it wasn't on a launch day so I just walked into an ATT store and they just did it for us but that's going to be rather difficult this time.  So there is no way I can just do this myself then?


 

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