Troubleshoot your device issues
masahitow's profile

Voyager

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1 Message

Saturday, March 9th, 2013 7:17 AM

Unlocked phone that does not require a data plan

Hi,

I'm thinkin got buy a unlocked phone, but I do not want to be charged for a data plan. I heard that there was a list of the list of unlocked phones that do not require a data plan. Do you know where I can find it?

 

Thanks.

Mentor

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26 Messages

10 years ago

I recently put my SIM in a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3 only to find that AT&T detected it and tried to add a data plan.

 

That was very much to my surprise, considering the phone is definitely not originally an AT&T device and the phone has a custom ROM, so it's not some software that is reporting itself to AT&T.

 

I assumed they are detecting phones based on their IMEI from a database, but I'm starting to suspect they use a different method.  I can't imagine what that would be.  Perhaps Samsung just handed over their entire smartphone IMEI list to AT&T.

 

I heard somewhere that you can actually have AT&T block data entirely and then use a smartphone with only wireless ethernet.  Seems a little silly to get 16 hours of battery life on a smartphone when you could get 4-5 days on a dumb phone, though.

Expert

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12.2K Messages

10 years ago


@buglebug wrote:

I recently put my SIM in a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3 only to find that AT&T detected it and tried to add a data plan.

 

That was very much to my surprise, considering the phone is definitely not originally an AT&T device and the phone has a custom ROM, so it's not some software that is reporting itself to AT&T.

 

I assumed they are detecting phones based on their IMEI from a database, but I'm starting to suspect they use a different method.  I can't imagine what that would be.  Perhaps Samsung just handed over their entire smartphone IMEI list to AT&T.

 

I heard somewhere that you can actually have AT&T block data entirely and then use a smartphone with only wireless ethernet.  Seems a little silly to get 16 hours of battery life on a smartphone when you could get 4-5 days on a dumb phone, though.


That is in the terms, as far as blocking data they will not do that on a smartphone, if you want a smartphone with no data plan use it with a gophone plan

Former Employee

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636 Messages

10 years ago

That's changed. On the new Mobileshare value plans, data block has been enabled. Temporary blocking is available to customer via the website or the app, but indefinite blocking is available to agents.

You still get billed for smartphone charges.

 

Smart limits has also been fixed, supposedly anyways to limit smartphones now too

-Alex

Master

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788 Messages

10 years ago

If you use the default browser on any smartphone while you are on their network, that browser will send a
user agent id that will let them know what operating system your device is using. If you don't use data on their network or use a different browser, the only way they would be able to identify the phone would be the IMEI.

Former Employee

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636 Messages

10 years ago

I'm not sure why you discounting that, the imei easily able to be backtracked to the phone model, and smartphone/basic phone distinction.

-Alex

Master

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788 Messages

10 years ago

I have used several smartphones (symbian OS & windows mobile) on at&t's network with an unlimited non-smartphone data plan. Using the IMEI alone won't work if at&t doesn't know what the device is, specifically ones that they don't sell. The user agent id of any web browser will tell them what browser you are using as well as the operating system that the browser is running on. Mobile devices also include additional information to help identify the device itself, which is also used by 3rd party websites to display content that is compatible with the device.
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