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Hero Pay-As-You-Go

S

sethbowman

Lurker
Hi I'm in the US where Paygo phones appear to be less enlightened than in the UK - We haven't even got a retail Paygo Android phone yet.

I'm looking for an Unlocked, Android phone with which I can use a Paygo, Voice-Only SIM while using only wifi for data.

There are several sites around which show how to set this up with the G1, but it involves borrowing an active data SIM to activate initially and I hear it might reset upon re-booting the phone? I need something a little more dependable than that.

My primary driver is cost. I can justify spending $400-$500 on a device if my monthly cost is $20 rather than $70. And by justify I mean to The Wife.

I think if this setup is possible, then Android+Paygo will ultimately win the convergence race. Take that UMPC's!

Anyhoo, this possible?
 
Surely it's possible!!!

I've been doing it since I got my Hero in early August.

I use AT&T pay-as-you-go.
 
I've been using the hero on pay as you go since I bought it.

You cannot buy the hero on pay as u go in the UK..you just have to use your initiative. I bought the Hero sim free (which was costly) and then just put in my payg sim card, its as easy as that.
 
Sweet! AT&T online customer service chat (nice feature, btw) just said I couldn't do it because it wasn't a 'GoPhone', but then when I asked if I could purchase said GoPhone and then xfer the SIM to the Hero they said I needed to go to a local store and ask. How handy for them.

This guy says PAYG dataplan can work. in the US, effectively minus the mobile data part, and touts using the GoPhone data plan to enable minimal data usage, even though, like me, he's not planning on using anything but wifi. Sounds reasonable but the only reason I can think a mobile data plan is necessary at all for me is to somehow set up the phone initially (i.e., enable wifi).

So, I'm not missing anything here? I can buy an unlocked Hero, pop in a voice-only SIM (I'm guessing this parts the sticky point - I don't want to pay for data. Period.), and rock? Just want to be sure before I go blow $500! The Wife would kill me. Seriously.

And thanks for the replies.
 
You can effectively have no data plan by not creating an APN. Of course, that will inhibit the use of MMS messaging, too.

As far as I know, you can setup the Google stuff after the fact, like getting your WiFi going first.
 
Excellent! I think my opinion has been poisioned by the collective experinece on the G1, which has many readily available testimonials online. I suspect this is due to that device being out over a year now, or maybe just "turn it on and pop in your SIM card" doesn't make an interesting net article.

Anyway, thanks much for the information guys. Now to sell The Wife on this one...
 
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