Using a Phone without Contract

[MannyNoela]

Hello,

Hello, just a question. I own a smartphone with a data plan, though I am out of contract.

Now, a friend of mine bought an ATT smartphone a couple of months ago, added a dataplan but never activated it. Instead, he went for one of the newer Iphones and activated it in store, and got himself into a 2yr agreement with the Iphone.

-- Since he hasn't activated the other smartphone, can he give it to me to use?
-- Do I just swap my SIM card into the new smartphone - I think they both use the mini version?
-- Do I have to call ATT to activate it?
-- And would it add a 2 year agreement, since I didn't buy it?

Thanks - MN

[efparri]

The SIM card is what is activated and not the telephone. AT&T does not require you to use the phone you purchased. If your friend continues to use the service after receiving an upgrade, he has agreed to a new contract. If your friend bought the phone you have outside of the contract process, there is no contract involved with that phone. You just put your SIM card into it and use it. If the phone is a different smartphone from the type for which you have the data plan, the data plan might be automatically changed by the carrier or you can change the data plan yourself, if necessary. The only smartphones requiring specific smartphone data plans are BlackBerry and iPhone. Windows Mobile, Android, Symbian, or WebOS data plans are interchangeable.