iPhone - FutureTG.com

carrier, and you can’t insert the SIM card (page 8) from a non-AT&T phone and
expect it to work.
Yes, hackers have succeeded in unlocking the iPhone, so that it can be used
on other cell companies’ networks; their primary motivation for doing so is to
be able to use it in other countries, where the iPhone hasn’t been available.
But now that the iPhone is sold legitimately in 70 countries (and counting),
there may be less reason to go that questionable route.
All right then: Here you are in the AT&T store, or about to head to one. Here are
some of the issues you’ll face and decisions you’ll have to make:
• Transferring your old number. You can bring your old cellphone or
home phone number to your new iPhone. Your friends and coworkers can
keep dialing your old number—but your iPhone will now ring instead of
the old phone.
It usually takes under an hour for a cellphone-number transfer to take
place, but it may take several hours. During that time, you can make calls
on the iPhone, but can’t receive them.
Transferring a landline number can take several days.
• Select your monthly AT&T plan. All iPhone service plans include unlimited
Internet use and unlimited calling to and from other AT&T phones.
All of them also offer Rollover Minutes, a feature no other carrier offers.
That is, if you don’t use up all of your monthly minutes this month, the
unused ones are automatically added to your allotment for next month,
and so on.
All but the cheapest plan also offer unlimited calls on nights and weekends.
(On that plan, you get 5,000 night/weekend minutes, which is actually
pretty close to “unlimited.”) The primary difference between the plans,
therefore, is the number of weekday calling minutes you get.
Most people sign up for the $70 monthly plan, which offers 450 weekday
calling minutes. But there’s a 900-minute plan for $90, a 1,350-minute
plan for $110, and, believe it or not, an unlimited calling plan for $130.
None of these includes any text messages. For those, you’ll have to pay
$5 more for 200 messages, $15 for 1,500, or $20 for unlimited messages.
Of course, you can always pay á la carte, too: 20 cents for each message
sent or received.
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Appendix A