I want an iPhone for $199...

June 16, 2008 10:32 AM

Will activating a current iPhone for a day make me eligible for the $199 iPhone 3G?

So I've checked a bunch of sites and FAQ's, and it looks like current AT&T customers who are not eligible for upgrade will NOT be able to purchase the iPhone 3G at the $199 price point.

http://consumerist.com/tag/iphone-confusion/?i=5016253&t=atts-customer-service-has-no-damn-clue-whats-going-on-with-the-new-iphone

http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/12/iphone-3g-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-but-were-afraid-t

However, there is a special clause for current iPhone users:
"all active postpaid customers in good standing with a 2G iPhone will be eligible to receive the qualified upgrade pricing for a 3G device regardless of service tenure"

My question is this: I have access to a current iPhone. What's to stop me from simply moving to the iPhone 2G for a day to receive the upgrade pricing?

posted by Rowgun to technology (4 answers total)

I would imagine that you'd have to have an iPhone plan in good standing. Popping your current sim card into an iPhone is unlikely to work.
posted by SECONDHANDSMOTE at 10:56 AM on June 16, 2008

Well, what about using the iPhone 2G along with the iphone plan for a month?
posted by Rowgun at 11:02 AM on June 16, 2008

What I take away from what I've read so far is that nobody really has a clue yet what's going on.

I'd go ahead and transfer your plan to the iPhone 2G; it couldn't really hurt. You might need to get a new SIM card for the iPhone from AT&T; they claim that regular SIM's don't work. (I'm not sure they really know what they're talking about, though, because the SIM's don't look any different.) After activating your special "iPhone plan" through iTunes, you can just drop the iPhone SIM card back into your regular phone if you want to.

Incidentally, this would be a great time to sell the old iPhone, because they're unavailable in stores. I just listed my 8GB iPhone on Craigslist for $300 and got 4-5 offers.
posted by designbot at 1:31 PM on June 16, 2008

This MacRumors posting has a lot of info with various scenarios.
posted by whiskeyspider at 2:58 PM on June 16, 2008