AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

Re:AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-C... by edandersen on Sunday February 03, 2013 @12:00AM (#5158700)

>> There is no way to use a smartphone without using data?

Er, turn off mobile data and rely on wi-fi. Calls and texts still work and your phone will behave as if you are roaming abroad (i.e if you crack and turn on mobile data, prepare to open your wallet).

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Re:AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-C... by gcb0 on Sunday February 03, 2013 @01:29AM (#5158888)

Reading that i think that the worst offender is the iphone that keeps phoning home. Not that at&t is not wrong as well. just that the iphone manges to screw the user even more.

if apple hadn't bent over so badly to allow telcos to screw the customers with the whole tethering fiasco (which is still going on. unbelievable. all you sheeple giving out free money) they wouldn't even know you had a special needs phone.

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Re:AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-C... by X-Istence on Sunday February 03, 2013 @03:05AM (#5159041)

If you turn off data on the iPhone it does no phoning home.

If it did phone home when data is turned off explicitly then I'd have been completely and utterly screwed by AT&T for the month I spent in Europe.

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Re:AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-C... by gcb0 on Saturday February 09, 2013 @03:55PM (#5193974)

right... doesn't that void the purpose of having a smart phone to begin with?

what if i need to use data and plan to control how much i use? As i did on all my travels for the first day or two until i could secure a local SIM card.

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Re:AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-C... by bestham on Sunday February 03, 2013 @02:57AM (#5159026)

Well, the phone does not phone home per se but AT&T analyses the IMEI number. In Sweden if you try to use data without a balance it simply does not work. What AT&T is doing is simply wrong, throwing services down OPs throat.

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Re:AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-C... by padmanabhan01 on Sunday February 03, 2013 @12:04AM (#5158709)

Before you get a chance to go to settings app and turn off mobile data, the OS probably already made 10 data requests to check 20 settings. It is data call. Whether the telco should count that as data and charge for it is a different question.

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Re:AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-C... by coopdog on Sunday February 03, 2013 @12:11AM (#5158721)

So.. change the setting before you put the sim in?

And if they don't have data in the plan the carrier by default just doesn't forward the packets

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Re:AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-C... by r00fus on Sunday February 03, 2013 @01:37AM (#5158906)

Ah, but why do that when you can just charge usurious rates for those who don't have the "benefit" of a data plan?

AT&T (and most of the wireless industry) are merely toll-gate operators - they are very good at making sure you pay for any usage - even the usage you didn't want to make (ie, receiving an MMS on your non-data flip phone that you didn't intend - sorry, that's $2).

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Re:AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-C... by padmanabhan01 on Sunday February 03, 2013 @12:19AM (#5158744)

That must be possible I guess

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Re:AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-C... by andrewflnr on Sunday February 03, 2013 @12:39PM (#5160330)

The first thing I did with my galaxy nexus was turn off mobile data, and I haven't turned it back on since. It's not that hard.

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Re:AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-C... by ewbuoi on Sunday February 03, 2013 @12:19PM (#5160250)

So? It's not necessary. It's not like your phone wont work without service.

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