iPhone 3G on T-Mobile

Does it really work?  The short answer is YES with a few buts… in there.  You can use T-Mobile on your iPhone 3G.  Before I bought one I was skeptical.  I would read online that the iSmartphone 2008 X-Sim works and then 2 paragraphs down in the comments someone would confirm that it doesn’t work.  I hope to help clear this up a little for those who are new to the iPhone 3G or looking to get one.

The main reason that people want to use T-Mobile or some other provider over AT&T is that it’s significantly cheaper.  Say nothing about the horrible customer service you may experience with AT&T.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can read about my experience with buying a few iPhone 3Gs on a family plan.

With an unlocked iPhone you can install a small hack (TZones) which allows you to use the T-Zones data plan ($5.99/Month) as an unlimited data connection.  I have a brother and a good friend who both did this on the first generation iPhone.  This is a big draw and one of the main reasons consumers don’t want to be chained to a provider when they buy a phone – especially one as expensive AT&T.

So what works?

Option 1 – Lesser Known Providers
Well, if you are afraid of hacks, you could go this route:  At the time that I purchased my iPhones my cell phone service was through Consumer Cellular.  The great thing about them is that they offer month to month plans at a significantly discounted rate compared to AT&T but they piggy-back on AT&T’s network.  I was pretty psyched when I put my Consumer Cellular sim card in my iPhone 3G and it worked!  So option 1 is to find a low cost provider that uses the AT&T network.  Here is a list of USA wireless service providers.

Option 2 – Sim Card Hack
I fully expected to have to use this method to unlock my iPhone so it was a nice surprise to find out that Consumer Cellular just worked.  The major drawback was that they didn’t offer data plans.  I used the WIFI on my phone when at home and at work for an internet connection.  I was blown away by how often I actually used the internet on my phone.  The web browser on the iPhone is the first mobile web experience that’s actually worth talking about (nice work Apple).  The only major flaw with it is that there is no flash player (um…   duh Apple?).  Since I use the internet so much on my iPhone now, I decided to start looking at T-Mobile so I could get a data plan.  Edge is the data network that both AT&T and T-Mobile use.  It’s not quite as fast as 3G but it’s fast enough to do what you need most of the time.  In my post on unlocking the iPhone 3G you can get instructions and see pictures of how I did it.  I used the iSmartphone 2008 X-Sim.  It worked perfectly until Apple released the 2.1 firmware update for the iPhone.  After installing it, I was able to get phone service, voicemail and text messaging but was unable to get data a connection to the Edge network.  I’ve ordered a new X-Sim that claims to work on the 2.1 firmware and doesn’t require you to cut your original sim card.  We’ll see if that works.

So the benefit is that you should be able to use any GSM provider using this method.  The drawback is that it might stop working as new firmware gets rolled out and data features may not work depending on the sim hack that you buy.  Of course you have the option not to install the new firmware.

Option 3 – Water The Money Tree
I sold a few of these phones on eBay for a profit and I noticed that there were several others selling for well over $1000.  The difference was that these phones were legally and officially unlocked by Apple only to be sold in other countries.  I wasn’t willing to pay that kind of money for one.

Option 4 – Wait
The iPhone Dev Team is always hacking away on the iPod Touch and iPhone.  It is possible that they will eventually find a hack for the baseband frequency on the iPhone 3G as they did with the first generation iPhones.  If that happens, you will be able to PWN your iPhone using the Pwnage Tool or WinPwn.  This is a very simple process that requires very little technical skill.  After Pwn’ing your iPhone, it will be unlocked to any GSM provider without an extra sim card hack.

When my new X-Sim arrives I’ll post an update as to whether or not it worked with T-Mobile’s data network. Update:  The new sim unlocker arived and didn’t work at all.  This was the new one that they say requires no cutting to your sim card.  It didn’t fit in the iPhone first of all.  Secondly when I finally got it in, it didn’t work at all.  Anyway, I’m not waisting any more cash on this experiment for now.  If you have a better experience with and x-sim, post a comment and let me know.