No iPhone Data Plan on Cellular One?
Posted September 12th, 2007 @ 11:31am by Erik J. Barzeski
Cellular One offers an unlimited data + text message plan for $25. A second line can be added (and "share" the access) for $12.50 more.
Unfortunately, the call center fellow (another "Erik") noted that since the iPhone isn't a CellOne phone, they can't "provision" it. Apparently CellOne does't use the EDGE access point stuff (username, password, etc.) like T-Mobile, Cingular before AT&T, and some other GSM carriers. Instead, they wirelessly put some software on the phone or something. ((Another rep later said it's provisioned simply by the cell phone number on the SIM - if the software's on your phone, it should work, but obviously with the iPhone there'd be no guarantee at all.))
I'm hunting for a way around this… if anyone has any suggestions or ideas, please let me know.
Update: apparently the first customer service rep misinformed me. It's $45 for the unlimited data/text on the Blackberry plan (with no partner plans), not $25. The $25 service, in the words of the second rep, "won't work very well with the kind of Internet on the iPhone."
Whether she simply means "it's not intended for more than those dumb Motorola phones that have horrible little "Web-like" features on them" or "it flat out won't work" is still up for debate. For $45 (and a six-month contract with a $100 early cancellation fee) I think I'll just wait for AT&T's $20 plan when the buyout is complete.
Donate Life
Posted 12 Sep 2007 at 4:15pm #
I'm no IT professional and I understand that it's really hard to do, but why can't all technology be compatible with everything? Why do iPhones need to be "unlocked?" I understand why but just don't understand why everything can't be compatible with everything.
When my Verizon plan is up i hope the iPhone and the data plans will be a little cheaper and I will be able to afford it, but if it's not then I'll opt for a "free" phone with a two year plan and wait again. *Sigh*
Posted 12 Sep 2007 at 6:46pm #
[quote comment="43271"]I'm no IT professional and I understand that it's really hard to do, but why can't all technology be compatible with everything?[/quote]
Why, c'mon now. You can't expect an industry to cater to customers and common sense now, can you?!?! Why, that'd be silly, people getting what they want and not being forced to jump through hoops to get even half of a solution!
[quote comment="43271"]Why do iPhones need to be "unlocked?" I understand why but just don't understand why everything can't be compatible with everything.[/quote]
The official story is that Apple needed the carrier to make some improvements to the network (think "visual voicemail") and wanted to set a good price ($20 data plans), so the only way they could kind of guarantee those things was to offer the rights to one carrier. The five year guarantee seems a bit lengthy to me, though - why not a one-year head-start? Everyone would be locked in for two years anyway.
[quote comment="43271"]When my Verizon plan is up i hope the iPhone and the data plans will be a little cheaper and I will be able to afford it[/quote]
$59.99 gets 450 minutes, 200 SMS, unlimited data, visual voicemail, 5000 nights and weekends, rollover, and unlimited mobile to mobile. That's not bad…
Verizon's plans seem to start at $79.99 for a similar package (albeit with unlimited nights and weekends, but only "data access for email" (whatever that means)).
The data plans are really quite cheap: $20 for unlimited data and 200 SMS (don't quote me on the 200). $59 gets 400 minutes and
Posted 20 Nov 2007 at 11:52am #
I'm a cell one customer and I used to have a blackberry, with the $45 bb plan from them. Now that I have my iPhone, I no longer use any of the BlackBerry features offered with the bb data plan, so I canceled it, added the unlimited data plan, and bingo! everything works fine.
As far as EDGE settings goes, use cellular1wap as the APN and nothing under the username and password.
As far as them telling you the unlimited data "won't work very well with the kind of Internet on the iPhone." - that's garbage.
btw, why did you tell them you have an iPhone? 😉
Posted 20 Nov 2007 at 12:31pm #
[quote comment="44466"]As far as EDGE settings goes, use cellular1wap as the APN and nothing under the username and password.[/quote]
I'm with AT&T now, literally as of today, so it ends up not mattering for me. Thanks, though - perhaps other CellOne customers might benefit in the month or two it takes CellOne to complete the change-over to AT&T systems.
Posted 13 Jul 2008 at 5:00am #
is there any update here if the non-smartphone plan works with chinookular one? Planning to buy a plan, but the smartphone data plan is so expensive... 😯
Posted 08 Nov 2011 at 6:52pm #
I am confined to a contract so cellular one said I jus tweed to obtain an iPhone than it would work on their system. Hw do you obtain one without an AT&T or Verizon plan? I did look at eBay but I should be able to pay around $200 for the phone not $800. Also, how do I on wow it will work with the cellular one system?