UPDATE 3: I have fixed the first link. I will see what is going on with the second, it just re-routes you to one of my posts, don’t use it.
UPDATE 2: Alright everyone, this is important. I have created a signed Mobile Configuration file and have also made a signed .ipcc file for all of you on AT&T. Enjoy!
Carrier Update, download, then apply in iTunes. This is exclusively for AT&T GoPhone customers
Mobile Configuration Profile, just open the Link in Safari by taping here, then install.
If the mobile configuration file I made doesn’t install right away, try my .ipcc. Also, tell me about any issues you may encounter and I will try to see what’s up.
Also, if you have any other carrier that isn’t AT&T, then continue using the external website I provided. Enjoy!
(These downloads are exclusively from Limited Edition iPhone, do not redistribute without permission, and only link to this page or to the file itself.)
UPDATE 1: Hey guys, it seems that our friends at Gizmodo have also found this to be an issue. Well, they have not found a solution, lucky for you, we are freaking monsters up here at Limited Edition iPhone, and I found a workaround in like 60 seconds, so prepaid gophone customers, I’ve got your backs! Oh, and AT&T… F*ck you! Apple, dump them, they are not helping you, but rather dragging you down and giving you a bad name.
Today I received a text message from AT&T to tell me about the 3.0 update on Wednesday, well my first reaction was, how the hell do they know that I have an iPhone if I didn’t activate my service on an iPhone (originally), but Mike said that possibly due to my IMEI, they knew I was on an iPhone 3G. Let me tell you a little story.
Well when I updated to 3.0 (7A341) on Tuesday morning, everything seemed 100% fine. Activation went through perfectly and sync went great as well.
Well, I went to bed and when I woke up Wednesday morning, I decided that I wanted to check my email and weather. So I tried and it gave me an error that read “Could not activate cellular data network: you are not subscribed to a cellular data service”.
Weird huh? Well I though, oh maybe I should reset all network settings, so I did, but to my surprise, it had no effect! So then I decided that maybe Apple had screwed up and accidentally typed in the wrong APN, since the new bundle was AT&T 4.0, instead of the previous AT&T 3.5. So I decided it was time to correct their issue. Little did I know back then that this was 100% intentional. Which AT&T now confirmed was intentional to get prepaid customers to switch to a post paid plan.
My method does not require a jailbreak. I am not jailbroken right now as there will be no public jailbreak until after 3.0 is released to the masses. I made a mobile configuration file for my iPhone 3G in order to change my APN. It is much safer than a custom .ipcc or a manual change. (due to human error of course, and its easier to apply, no iTunes needed to apply it.)
So what you need to do is download a program called “iPhone Configuration Utility”. Its a free download from Apple.com.
There is a very serious issue though. It seems that Apple has not updated their utility so that you can connect an iPhone 3.0 device to it and apply a configuration file directly via USB. You can however email it to yourself and then tap on it on your iPhone to activate and install the new configuration file.
Set the APN to:
APN: wap.cingular
Username: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password: CINGULAR1
Now export the .mobileconfig file via an e-mail and email it to yourself. Now go to your Mail application on your iPhone and open the message you mailed yourself, now, tap on the attachment and install the file!
Or, I guess, if you want… you can go to a website and bypass the long installation/creation process explained by my previous method. Just go to
http://www.unlockit.co.nz/#_Custom
on your iPhone, now just enter the APN data that I provided above where the website indicates. Just copy and paste it in. (or you can tap on the selector, the thing that says “blank”, the thing that is under the APN inputs, and select your carrier.) Now just tap on “create custom profile” and then it will exit Safari, and take you to the settings application. Now just tap on “install” and you are done. (Installing a profile may take up to 30 seconds, do not exit the menu until it is done installing or you will have a very corrupted carrier file.
There you go! Now you have full 3G and EDGE capabilities. This took me about a minute to figure out that it was an issue with the APN information Apple provided in the AT&T 4.0 bundle. So I used a method that I used to use to prevent data usage and just did the opposite and re-enabled data usage.
This is 100% safe! Just make sure you type the APN correctly and you should be fine. Just reboot after you have done this if you still don’t have a connection. I didn’t need to reboot, but you know, just in case. Don’t forget to spread the word and tell everybody you know that has a GoPhone Prepaid iPhone so that they can have uninterrupted service.
Alan can I do this trick to the 2 iPhones I have if I’m already locked in a 2 year contract and just call them up and tell them I’m trying to save money and I’ll be using 2 reg flip phones and get the unlimited media net package for 15 dollers that covers both my phones or how would I go about doing this
idol! it worked.
iphone 2g 8gb. using att unli data plan.
Hi Britt and Eric-
Can you tell me if ATT caught your incorrect data plan in their “automatic” sweeps of imei #s and had the iphone data plans automatically added back? I have changed my apn settings, but took my phone off att and put in a dumb phone- then after everything was set I have put my chip in an old smartphone. When I made the initial changes I was told by CSR that if I put the chip back into my iphone the $30 plan would be added back on without my permission. What happened to yours? Currently I have the $10.00 family data.
I’ve been using this for several months. No problems from AT&T…
hi. mine stopped working today
Espectacular!!
Thanks a lot!!
Thanks, Solved my problem….
Fantastic! It worked!
I used the iphone configuration utility but used your settings and it worked great. Thank you so much.
This worked fantastically, thank’s for the workaround! Silly AT&T trying to get some of us to go post-paid. But, they shouldn’t gripe. They are probably going to end up making more money off of Pay-As-You-Go iPhone customers anyways.
Thanks! worked like a charm. I phone… data network on Edge, SKYPE, Google Voice… I love it!!!
Will this work on a 2G iPhone, 3.1.2 on a GoPhone prepaid plan?
worked like a champ!!! thanks!!
Anyone else getting texts and emails from ATT all of a sudden saying your using the wrong plan for iPhone? Just started today have been using this fox for about 6months!!!
yeah, I have the same issue from today.
I just installed the new profile on my 3GS and get no acknowledgment on the phone of either Edge or 3G service.
Do I need to go purchase one of the prepaid data packages available from ATT?
I am getting a “profile could not be validated profile is missing identifier”. Does anyone know what that means? thanks
Too bad, I think AT&T disable this already. It does not work anymore!!
Dear ebc, can you confirm if you are able to access the internet with ATT Prepaid, since you stated that this workaround is not working any more. Any new workaround? Thanks.
works great! thank you!
Dear Jean, can you confirm if you are able to access the internet with ATT Prepaid, since ebc is stating that this workaround is not working any more. Thanks.
Ok first off, i have a regular 15 dollar data plan with att. I recieved several texts from att that i wason the wrong plan. I used the apn changer and voila! No more texts.
But……. Will i still get charged per kb? Does anyone know anybody who has been charge per kb even if they have ulimited data? Also when i run apn, i get WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM. I have to change the @ to @ symbol then it works. Anybody have same issue?
Guys, can you confirm the workaround continues to work on date since ebc stated above (on Jan 22) that it does not work any more? If not working, is there a new workaround to use the data plan on ATT Prepaid? Thanks.
yes it works. You may have to go in and change the APN from phone to wap.cingular
ALERT: I’ve been using this method for a couple months without a hitch, but today I got an email and text message that I needed to upgrade my data plan.
Help?
hi, so did you find a remedy to keep this working? thanks
I got a new work Blackberry Bold. I tried the above. It works for a time but then I get the old cannot connect to server type messages again. It seems like it happens when I enable airplane mode and then come out of airplane mode. Enabling the wifi also seems to dump me off the data network. My take away after trying for 3 days: it works intermittently but its not a robust solution.
Hm, still seems to work fine for me. Has anyone noticed that sometimes you can’t send or recieve MMS messages on your phone after the workaround? I mean, the phone says they send, but the people don’t actually recieve them, same goes if someone is sending you a picture message.
Still works like a charm with GOPhone
any harm in upgrading to the new software 3.1.3 ??????
naw, I’m pretty sure this works outside of firmware updates
I am travelling to the US in 3 weeks from AU. I have an unlocked iPhone 3G on latest firmware. I am looking at getting a PrePaid GoPhone subscription with AT&T for my visit. I am wondering if I need to get the $19.99 100MB data plan also to get this to work or dont need data plan at all and this will work??