Full price captivate and keep my unlimited data plan?

[cryptyk]

I want a captivate but I also want to keep my unlimited $15 data plan. If I go buy a full price Captivate from AT&T's store without telling them my account information, will I be able to continue on my low cost data plan, or will the Captivate identify itself on the AT&T network as a "smartphone"?

What about if I buy the Captivate (or a Galaxy S) from Exapnsys?

[maxh2]

Upon insertion of your SIM card and powering up, your phone reports its IMEI number to the network. These days the system automatically adds the correct data plan shortly after putting your SIM in a phone that requires it (which is any AT&T branded smartphone.) For the great majority of people, anyways. There's only a very few of us who somehow appear to be immune to that. If you buy an unbranded Galaxy S you can keep the $15 medianet. The only unbranded phone that does trigger the automatic plan change is the nexus one. All others are still good to go.

[newcronos]

Since it's somewhat related, I thought I'd ask here rather than creating another thread.

I have been using unbranded unlocked smartphones for years with no problem on my Pay2Go line. Early on with the unlimited data package, and now with the $20/100 MB that I extended every month with the $5/1MB to roll over the leftovers MBs (I'm pretty much covered by wi-fi 24/7 so I usually only use 30-50MB/month, tops).

Now, I'm thinking of getting a Captivate full price. This will be the first time I'll use an AT&T branded phone. Can AT&T do anything about this? Will they even care?

[ROLLTIDE]

I want a captivate but I also want to keep my unlimited $15 data plan. If I go buy a full price Captivate from AT&T's store without telling them my account information, will I be able to continue on my low cost data plan, or will the Captivate identify itself on the AT&T network as a "smartphone"?

What about if I buy the Captivate (or a Galaxy S) from Exapnsys?

Do you have a smart phone exclusion on your line ?

[inurb]

Only if you use the unbranded galaxy s version will you be able to use the 10 or 15 dollar unlimited media net plan.

[ant1pathy]

Do you have a smart phone exclusion on your line ?

Won't help. If there's ANY change to the line (SIM, IMEI, anything) it'll allow the correct data feature to be jammed.

Remember that the Euro Galaxy S doesn't have 3G bands to use on AT&T. So it'll work, but on EDGE only.

[efparri]

I thought that the exclusion only allowed you to have no data plan and not to have the incorrect data plan.

[inurb]

Remember that the Euro Galaxy S doesn't have 3G bands to use on AT&T. So it'll work, but on EDGE only.

Actually the Euro model works fine on AT&T 3g on the 1900 band. I have one and it's constantly on HSDPA 3g.

The euro model has 900/1900/2100 WCDMA bands. So it WILL work with at&t's 1900 3g frequency. Just make certain you live in a 1900 3g saturated area.

Here is a photo to prove it.

[ROLLTIDE]

I thought that the smart phone exclusion kept ATT from sending you a text message and switching your data plan

[maxh2]

I thought that the exclusion only allowed you to have no data plan and not to have the incorrect data plan.

Somehow it allows me to get away with an incorrect data plan. Of course it may be something else, but I really don't think so. I had another line that didn't have it which did get hit by a sweep.

[Goelz83]

I thought that the smart phone exclusion kept ATT from sending you a text message and switching your data plan

If you keep your SIM card in the original smartphone that you were grandfathered into the new policy, this is the case.

If you put your SIM card in any other smartphone, you could possibly lose the smartphone exclusion feature...

[robhs]

I bought my captivate outright (full price....OUCH!), they tried like hell to get me to upgrade in to the thing even thought I was not due for an upgrade until next year. I asked what a new plan comparable to mine would cost, and over the two year contract, it would cost me almost 500 bucks...the cost of the phone!
I just bought the phone and walked out happy and broke. AFAIK, there has been no change to my plan.

[ant1pathy]

I thought that the exclusion only allowed you to have no data plan and not to have the incorrect data plan.

No data is incorrect on smartphones :P. And it's only for the exact hardware and combination that were present when the exclusion SOC was placed. ANY changes, such as cross upgrades or insurance handsets, will remove the code and jam the appropriate feature.

[ROLLTIDE]

No data is incorrect on smartphones :P. And it's only for the exact hardware and combination that were present when the exclusion SOC was placed. ANY changes, such as cross upgrades or insurance handsets, will remove the code and jam the appropriate feature.

That is not 100% true and I have seen this happen on many accounts

[maxh2]

If you keep your SIM card in the original smartphone that you were grandfathered into the new policy, this is the case.

If you put your SIM card in any other smartphone, you could possibly lose the smartphone exclusion feature...

No data is incorrect on smartphones :P. And it's only for the exact hardware and combination that were present when the exclusion SOC was placed. ANY changes, such as cross upgrades or insurance handsets, will remove the code and jam the appropriate feature.

I have smartphone exclusion. It was put on my account when I was using a fuze. Since then I've had my sim card in a tilt, back into the fuze, into 2 dumbphones, a t-mobile nexus one, and 2 at&t nexus ones. Oh yeah, also an iphone 2g. I still have the smartphone exclusion, shown on OLAM, and I'm still using $15 medianet. So even if in theory it's only supposed to work for the original smartphone, that's not the way it actually works.