AT&T finished with iPhone on GoPhone?

iPhone can GoPhone. Ever since AT&T GoPhone eliminated their $20/month unlimited prepaid data plans back in November, the answer has been “kind of.” In that, you can probably get it to work, but that paying per kilobyte for a device like the iPhone just isn’t economical. However, there are some customers still grandfathered into the data plan. Among them is Erica Sadun of The Unofficial Apple Weblog. After receiving an odd text message from AT&T regarding iPhone upgrades and service, she found out that she might be out of luck come today. This is the body of the text message:

AT&T Free MSG: A new software upgrade for iPhone will be available on 6/17. This upgrade may affect your data service. Please visit att.com/iphone or call 800-901-9878 for a representative. If you download the software and are not on an approved iPhone data plan, your data service will be interrupted.

Erica gave a call and found out that she didn’t have to switch to a contract plan, but that the data service “will not be up to par.” It sounds like, yeah, we’re not going to tell you what you can and can’t do, but if you do this you’re going to regret it. Real nice way to treat your customers, especially ones like Erica who have been with you for about two years. Then again, maybe they just don’t care, because she still has the 2G iPhone, and Apple is about to release the third iteration. If you’re on a GoPhone plan with an iPhone, you’ve likely already received the message above. If you’re just interested in the topic, here it is. If you were planning to get an iPhone and hook it up to GoPhone, tough luck. This actually makes such little sense to me. Doesn’t the original iPhone (2G) seem perfect for a prepaid account at this point?]]>