I finally got an iPhone 5 yesterday. I went an unusual route. I have some iPhone 5 compatible projects coming up so I decided to bite the bullet after getting paid a down payment on a project I have been asked to help out with.
Since I am not yet up for a "cheap" upgrade, I had to buy one at full non-subsidized pricing. I went to the Apple Store and purchased the Verizon model in black, even though I am on AT&T. I then marched over to the AT&T store and asked them for a nano-SIM to convert my AT&T model iPhone 4S over to this Verizon iPhone 5. They looked at me funny but I assured them it was kosher. They converted it and put the SIM in for me and set the device in their system to the new iPhone 5 (using the IMEI number, which of course their system does not recognize -- this was a mistake to do). Low and behold, the phone does find AT&T towers and connects and I can make and receive phone calls. I leave and go home. (This works because the Verizon model is the same, basically, as the international model and includes full GSM/UMTS/HSPA+ support, just like the AT&T model does, in addition to the Verizon CDMA/EVDO stuff. The difference between the AT&T model and the Verizon model, mostly, is the LTE bands that each is tuned for. Verizon model CANNOT pick up the AT&T LTE bands, so I am "stuck" with the fast HSPA stuff from AT&T that I had on the iPhone 4S. Even though LTE was turned on officially this week in Salt Lake City, going by the wife's AT&T iPhone 5, we don't get it where I live, and I work from home most of the time, so the loss of LTE is of little consequence at the moment. My next phone purchase will be with the "cheap" subsidized new iPhone when it comes out in a year and I will get the LTE then. Verizon does NOT lock their SIM card slot so I can use this with AT&T and cheap prepaid SIMs when I travel internationally and my phone has the international LTE bands for when I travel and am more likely going to want faster data if possible.) Now the problems started. I noticed last night that the "Personal Hotspot" feature was not turned on anymore and that the Voicemail was not the "Visual Voicemail" but was standard call in voicemail like most any phone has. I logged in to ATT website and noticed that my device was listed as a normal [generic] smartphone without visual voicemail. So I get on an ATT support chat window and ask them to put the iPhone designation back on my account and this number/device. No problem I am told. They want the SIM card number, the IMEI number, etc. I give it all. No dice. I get escalated to a higher level of tech support. They try and then tell me it cannot be done. Their system does not recognize the IMEI number and the system auto-selects the appropriate account/device type based on that. There is no human addressable setting they can flip (stupid system) and they cannot manually set a phone type for the IMEI number. I thank them and get off the chat. I then get the wife's iPhone 5 (a real AT&T model) and put the SIM in my iPhone 5 and boot it and it works but it too has old style voicemail. Her SIM card is linked in the system to her iPhone 5 so it is still listed as an iPhone account, not generic smartphone. Then after about 2-3 minutes it comes up and tells me the voicemail password is bad. I put in her voicemail password and low and behold, Visual Voicemail is working on her number / SIM in my Verizon phone. This clues me in. The IMEI number is used to set a static-in-their-system setting of what type of account it is. It is not done dynamically when you connect to their towers or make a call or anything. A Ha. I have a nano-SIM to micro-SIM adapter I got on Amazon (like $1.33 SHIPPED -- and quite nice and actually came with a nano-SIM to regular SIM and micro-SIM to regular SIM adapter as well). So I stuck my new AT&T nano-SIM into my iPhone 4S using the adapter. I call AT&T tech support (at 1am -- they seem to be 24/7 now) and tell them I no longer have visual voicemail. Guy gets my iPhone 4S IMEI number and resets the account. The account type is a generic "iPhone" account while the wife's is an "iPhone with 4G LTE" but since I can't use the LTE anyway I am happy. Visual voicemail works on the iPhone 4S as does the Personal Hotspot. I talk to the guy a little to probe a little on how the system works to confirm my suspicions, and thank him and hang up. Out goes the SIM from the iPhone 4S to the iPhone 5. Personal Hotspot now works. No Visual Voicemail. I wait, and try a few times as it took a minute of three for my wife's SIM card to trigger the password request and revert to Visual Voicemail. No dice. I swap SIMs around a few times back and forth. Am about to give up and just say screw it and take the phone back to Apple and get a real factory unlocked phone. When, low and behold, one last try, and it DOES ask me for the voicemail password with my SIM in my phone and poof, now I have Visual Voicemail. So I am where I wanted to be. It works in all respects except LTE on AT&T and since I don't really care about LTE at the moment, it not being in my neighborhood anyway and when I am out and about in the city I am looking up email and prices and stuff and the LTE advantage does not really buy me much, but I have a phone with unlocked SIM and Euro/Intl LTE bands. I only recommend going down this path if you have an existing iPhone 4 or 4S on your account at AT&T and you can get them to give you the nano-SIM card without taking the device and sticking the IMEI number into their system. You need to leave your old iPhone IMEI number in their system. Their system uses it statically to set up features and stuff and not dynamically so there is no real harm in it. And you need their system to know that you have an iPhone in order to get the iPhone support you want. (For years I had phones other than what they thought based on IMEI when I was with T-Mobile as I would buy a new phone and swap SIM cards without telling them. No problems in day to day use). The phone is nice and light and zippy. I am using it naked for now. My wife is giving me a little grief over it since it was expensive and is "not protected". She has a case on her iPhone 5. But I got the AppleCare on it and generally treat my stuff well so I think I will be OK and I get to enjoy the nice and thin and light weight feel of it. -- _______________________________________________ iPhone-talk mailing list [email protected] http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/iphone-talk
