What to look for in avoiding the AT&T-imposed $25/month smartphoneIMEI penalty?

What 'else' should I consider when buying a Craigslist iPhone 3G or 3GS
for use in avoiding the AT&T smartphone $25/month IMEI penalty plan?

I'm strongly considering dropping AT&T in favor of T-Mobile due to the
AT&T "smartphone IMEI policy".

This policy says AT&T will automatically add their $25/month data plan if
you place your SIM card into any (note the word "any") cellphone that
they consider a "smartphone" (based purely on IMEI lookup tables).

My goal is to buy a Craigslist iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS for my teen's
birthday next month. He only "needs" a keyboard (for extensive texting) &
apps & the web while at a WiFi hotspot.

I should be able to provide him all that using just a voice-only + text
plan (i.e., I see no need for a 'data' plan).

Almost all the Craigslist iPhones appear to be both unlocked & jailbroken,
so, my assumption is that is what I'll be getting him.

Researching a bit, I find the Chinese-built iPhones (apparently) do not
do WiFi (e.g., Model A1325, & A1324), so I'll avoid those. Likewise I'll
avoide the CDMA iPhones (e.g., Model A1349) since I will be on GSM.

But, what else should I look out for in buying an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS
off of Craigslist for use in avoiding the AT&T-imposed $25 smartphone IMEI
penalty?

NOTE: I considered trying to figure out how to change the iPhone IMEI
number to that of a non-smartphone (say, a Motorola RAZR); but I failed
in trying to find a DIY that showed me how to spoof the iPhone 3G or
iPhone 3GS IMEI number.

On Jul 27, 1:35*am, arkland <arkl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> What 'else' should I consider when buying a Craigslist iPhone 3G or 3GS
> for use in avoiding the AT&T smartphone $25/month IMEI penalty plan?
>
> I'm strongly considering dropping AT&T in favor of T-Mobile due to the
> AT&T "smartphone IMEI policy".
>
> This policy says AT&T will automatically add their $25/month data plan if
> you place your SIM card into any (note the word "any") cellphone that
> they consider a "smartphone" (based purely on IMEI lookup tables).
>
> My goal is to buy a Craigslist iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS for my teen's
> birthday next month. He only "needs" a keyboard (for extensive texting) &
> apps & the web while at a WiFi hotspot.
>
> I should be able to provide him all that using just a voice-only + text
> plan (i.e., I see no need for a 'data' plan).
>
> Almost all the Craigslist iPhones appear to be both unlocked & jailbroken,
> so, my assumption is that is what I'll be getting him.
>
> Researching a bit, I find the Chinese-built iPhones (apparently) do not
> do WiFi (e.g., Model A1325, & A1324), so I'll avoid those. Likewise I'll
> avoide the CDMA iPhones (e.g., Model A1349) since I will be on GSM.
>
> But, what else should I look out for in buying an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS
> off of Craigslist for use in avoiding the AT&T-imposed $25 smartphone IMEI
> penalty?
>
> NOTE: I considered trying to figure out how to change the iPhone IMEI
> number to that of a non-smartphone (say, a Motorola RAZR); but I failed
> in trying to find a DIY that showed me how to spoof the iPhone 3G or
> iPhone 3GS IMEI number.

Ipod Touch and any feature phone will do the job. It would be nice to
actually be able to reach your child by phone, something not easily
done with the iphone. As a phone, it simply sucks. Game machine,
podcast player, no problem, just don't expect to get phone calls.

Good luck with Craigslist. I managed to break my old Blackberry, which
isn't easy to do. [A long story.] Many ads on Craigslist are fake. If
the ad says "you must respond to this ad with a real email address",
go elsewhere. I'm not sure what they are doing, but selling phones
ain't it. Then getting the people to actually do the deal is another
story. These idiots can't get laid in a whore house. I've bought stuff
on Craigslist before, but getting a phone was simply a pain in the
ass. I actually had one woman make me wait a week, then she changed
her mind and kept the phone she was going to sell me. And I was
leaving town in two days, so I wasted time waiting for that deal.

I finally got a phone from a gal that works in one of those phone
kiosks. It was also on Craigslist, but at least she knew how to do a
deal. The phone was brand new. Some sort of customer mixup. She
unlocked it for me and fired it up with a foreign simcard. She didn't
get paid until my T-mob simcard worked. I never dealt with these kiosk
people, but this woman knew all the tricks. To be honest, I never
expected someone in a kiosk to be so good.

As a FYI, T-mob will unlock any T-mob phone if you ask them, even if
under contract.

On Wed, 27 Jul 2011 23:28:53 -0700 (PDT), (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> As a FYI, T-mob will unlock any T-mob phone if you ask them, even if
> under contract.

That's good to know!