Cheap iPhone data plan with T-Mobile USA
August 25th, 2009
Just a quick post for everyone who’s lucky enough to be using T-Mobile on their iPhone in the US. It’s possible to get a data plan for your iPhone at only $9.99. It’s edge only, but that doesn’t matter because T-Mobile’s 3G network is incompatible with the iPhone’s 3G radio.
Here it is:
- Log into your account at tmobile.com. Change your device to be a silver (the pink one won’t work!) Motorola RAZR.
- As of this writing, there’s a bug in the site that prevents you from seeing the correct data plans for your newly selected device, so log out of the site, then log back in again. Now fFind your way to the page that lists the possible services you can add on to your plan, and you should now be able to select a $9.99/month web plan ($20 gets you unlimited texting as well). Select it.
- In your iPhone go to
Settings->General->Network->Cellular Data Networkand for the APN useinternet2.voicestream.com. Leave the username and password blank.
You might need to wait up to 24 hours for the service to be activated. Just keep restarting your phone periodically and check to see if it starts working.
Comments
Thanks you’re the awesomest!!!! I did it, now lemme check it out!!!
I tried it and it says “to connect to the internet with the device you are using, you’ll need a webConnect data plan… any ideas??
@Luiz
Check if Tmobile reset your phone selection on your account page. If so, set it back to the Motorola.
There was a little bit of bugginess to the Tmobile site when I did this, so you might need to try the following. Try removing any data plans you have. Log out of the site. Log in and select the silver razr v3, then log out again. Now log in, and add the $9.99 data plan.
@Arash
My phone’s web access stopped working this morning when I was traveling. I do not use a iPhone, I use an unlocked Nokia, but not a tmobile branded. I called tech support at the time and told me to reset. I got home and my web, email, im are still not working. I called tmobile they said I had to upgrade my plan or get a tmobile branded phone. I have two spare phone and sure enough the internet works on them, but they are not nearly as nice as my main unlocked phone. I was going to try your trick but the tmobile site does not allow me to change anything. I don’t know what this all means, but if they raise my fees, I just might vote with my wallet. Arash, can you recommend any other sites/blogs to see if this is widespread? I think so, since my new billing cycle started today and I sense there will be others in similar situations
I don’t know much more about other phones. I’ve pieced together this info from what I know about Tmobile and what I’ve learned from experimentation on my iPhone. I’d recommend changing your device in the Tmobile account settings page and seeing if that helps at all.
It’s still not letting me connect… I even switched phone to see if the internet works on my old one, to see if the service was active and it was….
the url ‘http://wipcore.t-mobile.com/.webconnect.html‘ is what comes up when i try to browse… :(
any suggestions??
should I try the long coded way??
@ Arash,
I’ve been checkin out numerous forums and they all said the same as use for the most part…. however i found one guy who posted that the internet cannot use the ‘web2go’ internet access, which is what I have… know anything about that… it’s a plan for 9.99????
thanks
@ ARash
I got it working! :) it does work with the web2go plan which is 9.99 through tmobile…. And you do use the internet2.voicestream.com for this plan…. The silver motorola worked, and for those who think it may not work, it took about 24 hours or so for it to kick in. The speed is pretty descent also :) …. I’m texting you from my iPhone right now! Lol
Thanx for Tha help!!
I’m currently using iPhone 3GS with tmo PAYG plan, and voice service works fine. Although I changed my device to Motorola RAZR V3 on My T-Mobile site and went through the process you explained (i.e., log-out and log-in again), I couldn’t add $9.99 data plan (no link to the possible data plans appeared). The following link:
https://my.t-mobile.com/plan/learn/learnhome.aspx?action=Pln_Lrn_Srv_InternetandEmail
didn’t walk me through the process of adding the data service since it says like “We’re sorry—due to your account type, you can’t view this information.” Is it that $9.99 plan is no longer applicable to iPhone users?
@redrose
I don’t know if this works with the pay as you go service, but if you could experiment and find a way that does work, I can update the post for those users. Try selecting a different model phone (log out and back in) and see if you can enable the data plan after each one.
BTW, are you making sure to select the silver razr? I know the pink one definitely didn’t have the data option.
@Arash
I appreciate your quick reply. I just thought that this method was applicable to PAYG plan, assuming that many iPhone users are using their iPhone with this plan just to entertain mobile internet at reasonable price. I’ll report it if I would be successful in using web2go on PAYG plan.
I couldn’t find a RAZR described as “silver”, but I chose one that looks silver…
Hey are the MMS settings the same as the edge stttings for this 9.99 package. My MMS settings are wap.voicestream.com so I am wondering if that will change as well. And thank u for your time when responding
@Flyboy303
Unfortunately, I’m unfamiliar with MMS configuration/settings. I don’t use them because of the outrageous pricing of the services, so I have my provider disable them. Sorry I couldn’t help.
Morning, I am interested in getting data and text only on my iphone 3G. RIght now it is still with ATT, but when I went into a tmobile store I was told it would be $55 month for data and text only or $65 for data, text and 300 mins. So my question is what rate plan do i need to have to add the 9.99 data or in my case $20 for data and unlimited text? do i just go into store and ask for a sim card on the smallest minute plan? In summary all I want is data and text; and i want to pay less than $30 a month.
Hi,
I just changed the phone type, however, when i go to change/manage service, there is no option on $9.99 web plan. Is it the hot spot plan everyone referring to? Can you please outline exactly which plan?
I have selected Motorola RAZR V3.