You can buy a used 3GS is at this point for about $175 from craigslist. Maybe two $5300 for an iPhone 4. And then use something like this utility http://www.iclarified.com/unlock/ to make sure that it's unlockable and unlock the phones and put the T-Mobile sim card in.
If they don't have a data plan then there is no need to tell T-Mobile to add one. Or T-Mobile has very small data plans so maybe five dollars per month for 100 MB. Text messages will be included in the phone service but you can also have them disabled. A 3GS is also upgradable to iOS 6 so you can put them in the single app mode for the phone and basically take away any complexity of the apps. Michael On Thursday, September 13, 2012, Andy Fuchs wrote: > Nathan, > > just buy an unlocked iPhone elsewhere and put in any (prepaid) card you > like.... > > Maybe you know someone in Europe, where you can buy iPhones w/o SIM- and > Net-Lock. Even if you must pay some customs (which is plain stupid, if you > think about it), it's much cheaper than most of the US data-plans. > > BTW: I'm pretty sure there are quite some sellers on Ebay as well, who > will sell you an original unlocked iPhone. > > Just an idea... > > andy > > > On 14.09.2012, at 01:21, objectwerks inc > <[email protected]<javascript:;>> > wrote: > > > > > On Sep 13, 2012, at 5:07 PM, Nathan Sims wrote: > > > >> On Sep 13, 2012, at 3:51 PM, LuKreme wrote: > >> > >>> Nathan Sims spake on Thursday 13-Sep-2012@16:27:15 > >>>> I see that Apple is now selling the 4S for $99 with a 2 year > contract. From the web page, it looks like there's no way to know how much > that's going to cost out the door without actually signing up to a contract > with either ATT, Verizon or Sprint. > >>>> > >>>> Does anyone know about how much the cheapest possible contract would > run? I want to get one for my aging parents who only need it as a portable > emergency phone, no data, texting, etc. > >>> > >>> You can't do that with an iPhone. a Data plan is required. If you have > a phone that is qualified to be unlocked, unlock it and give it your > parents with a cheap t-Mobile contract and buy yourself a new phone. > >> > >> They already have a "dumb" cell phone, (Samsung/T-Mobile) but it's > designed so poorly they can't reliably figure out how to use it. They liked > the 4S I showed them, so I just wanted to give it a try. > >> > >> Could I possibly put their T-Mobile SIM card into a 4S? Will that "just > work" (I think I tried it before and it didn't) or are there some > shenanigans I'd have to go through to do it? Not really into jailbreaking... > >> > > > > Not unless you unlock it, which AT&T won't due unless you are deploying > military outside of CONUS or your phone is out of contract (which a 4S > won't be yet). > > > > Some third parties claim to be able to unlock them. > > > > You can get unlocked iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS used though. > > > > > > -- > > _______________________________________________ > > iPhone-talk mailing list > > [email protected] <javascript:;> > > http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/iphone-talk > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > iPhone-talk mailing list > [email protected] <javascript:;> > http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/iphone-talk >
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