Straight Talk Bring Your Own GSM Phone Program (Not a Loophole)

**MacFrog** · 02-11-2012, 05:07 PM

Originally Posted by GeneG

Got the SIM card this morning for my factory unlocked iPhone 4s, spent several hours on the phone with ST CS (Facebook was useless) porting my old number and now can Talk and Text. However, I can't change the APN and cannot get data. I tried both unlockit and manual. The problem is that when I go to Settings > General > Network, the top option is "Cellular Data" with a toggle on/off. It is not clickable, nor is it "Cellular Data Network". The other options on that page are Data Roaming, VPN, or WiFi.

Any suggestions?

As the phone technically thinks its on AT&T it attempts to use the at&t settings - which disables the APN screen for all phones - factory unlocked included.

To enable the screen you need to insert a non AT&T sim (such as a Tmobile or foreign sim) and this will enable the screen. You can then go into the screen - pop out the non AT&T sim, enter your straight talk sim and then enter the information.

Once you exit the screen it will no lomg be available but the information will entered be saved. You will only need to redo this if you pop your sim out or enter the information incorrectly. Restarting the phone or updating it will not effect the settings.

**GeneG** · 02-11-2012, 05:31 PM

You are kidding! I don't have any other SIM cards (except the one from my dumbphone that was the free phone about 4 years ago (which should tell you how old it is). The SIM is about twice the size of the microSIM and is, of course, AT&T as they were my old carrier...

Any other way to do this?

**Cuser** · 02-11-2012, 05:57 PM

Originally Posted by GeneG

You are kidding! I don't have any other SIM cards (except the one from my dumbphone that was the free phone about 4 years ago (which should tell you how old it is). The SIM is about twice the size of the microSIM and is, of course, AT&T as they were my old carrier...

Any other way to do this?

You can cut that SIM to microSIM size probably. Look at instructions on google for how to do it. Or walk into a t-mobile store and ask for a SIM card. Tell them you want to activate the phone at home. They sell microSIMs at t-mobile too.

Not sure if I believe what the above person said. Wouldn't a factory unlocked iPhone have this screen enabled no matter what?

**MacFrog** · 02-11-2012, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by Cuser

You can cut that SIM to microSIM size probably. Look at instructions on google for how to do it. Or walk into a t-mobile store and ask for a SIM card. Tell them you want to activate the phone at home. They sell microSIMs at t-mobile too.

Not sure if I believe what the above person said. Wouldn't a factory unlocked iPhone have this screen enabled no matter what?

Nope. That screen is controlled by the carrier file. It doesn't matter what the status of the phone is. AT&t locks those settings. I have a factory unlocked phone so I would know...

**freedomspopular** · 02-11-2012, 06:27 PM

So how would you go about changing the APN settings if you don't have another sim card to use?

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**MacFrog** · 02-11-2012, 06:30 PM

Originally Posted by freedomspopular

So how would you go about changing the APN settings if you don't have another sim card to use?

Sent from my Triumph using Tapatalk

Unfortunately either jailbreak or pressure Straight Talk and other MNVO's to get AT&T to change their carrier file for the iPhone. I have a feeling they are doing it on purpose though to make it harder to use the iPhone on prepaid. GoPhone's have a similar issue. You can get a unactivated Tmobile micro card on Ebay for $5ish with shipping though.

**clockcycle** · 02-11-2012, 06:44 PM

You can also buy a simple mobile (T-Mobile MVNO) microsim for $1 at many dealers and lots on ebay. I buy mine locally, but you can buy from them and get it delivered look for iphonerepairmiamibeach on ebay.

Disclaimer; I have nothing to do with this vendor, I just happen to buy from them, there are other vendors and you might have local options as well. They are commonly found for $1 now a days.

**MacFrog** · 02-11-2012, 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by clockcycle

You can also buy h20, red rocket or simple mobile microsim for $1 at many dealers and lots on ebay. I buy mine locally, but you can buy from them and get it delivered look for iphonerepairmiamibeach on ebay.

Disclaimer; I have nothing to do with this vendor, I just happen to buy from them, there are other vendors and you might have local options as well. They are commonly found for $1 now a days.

They will have the same problem. All AT&T mnvos will.

**bassmaster4** · 02-11-2012, 06:50 PM

has anyone used the att sim card on a motorola atrix 4g or atrix 2?

**freedomspopular** · 02-11-2012, 06:52 PM

Alright cool. My parents are looking to do this with some 3gs's. I'm an Android guy so I know nothing about iphones.

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**stonedcold** · 02-11-2012, 07:01 PM

Originally Posted by MacFrog

As the phone technically thinks its on AT&T it attempts to use the at&t settings - which disables the APN screen for all phones - factory unlocked included.

To enable the screen you need to insert a non AT&T sim (such as a Tmobile or foreign sim) and this will enable the screen. You can then go into the screen - pop out the non AT&T sim, enter your straight talk sim and then enter the information.

Once you exit the screen it will no lomg be available but the information will entered be saved. You will only need to redo this if you pop your sim out or enter the information incorrectly. Restarting the phone or updating it will not effect the settings.

This guy put the correct info. That is the way it works on iphone. My 4S factory unlocked behaves the same way. Before the jailbreak came along I documented a tmobile sim swap trick that opens up the settings for ST e71 sims. I documented the lengthy process a while back here.

http://wiki.howardforums.com/index.p...ht_Talk_iPhone

Note, all this is no longer necessary at all as jailbreak is now very easy and you can just get tetherme app if you are on a broken iPhone.

I leave the tmobile instructions on the wiki for people that don't want to jailbreak or for the future when apple kills the jailbreak.

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**seank** · 02-11-2012, 07:12 PM

Originally Posted by freedomspopular

So how would you go about changing the APN settings if you don't have another sim card to use?

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I used unlockit.co.nz on my factory unlocked iPhone 4S.

**dfstrasser** · 02-11-2012, 07:16 PM

Do both of the sims offer the same coverage or is on better than other? ATT service is pretty good at my house, while TMobile is not so good. Will the ATT sim offer better service or will they both be the same?

**stonedcold** · 02-11-2012, 07:16 PM

Unlockit.co is a waste of time and unnecessary at this point in time. Unlockit.co will never get you mms and never has.

If you don't want to do the tmobile sim trickery to get every feature working the best alternative to getting everything functional is tetherme which means jailbreak. Tetherme is the way to go for most peeps for now.

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