Using a iPhone 5 with AT&T Wireless for $100 A Year

In the past, I wrote about a great T-Mobile prepaid wireless plan that only cost $100 a year. The plan offers voice and text messages only, no cellular data. Combined with a smartphone, this plan is a great way to have low cost cellular service and still enjoy the benefits of a smartphone. This T-Mobile plan amazing. But he catch is, if you use an iPhone or use your phone in an area that doesn’t have great T-Mobile network coverage, you can end up without service.

And this is what happened to a good friend of mine, Nancy. Nancy wanted an iPhone 5. She didn’t need or want an expensive monthly bill. So she bought an unlocked iPhone 5 from the Apple store and we went over to the T-Mobile store in the same mall and set her up with the $100 a year plan.

At first, she was happy. Over time, she realized that she had marginal service in the areas she worked and where she liked to shop. All of her friends were on the AT&T network, and their phones worked where her phone did not.

A friend told her they were using an iPhone with the ATT Pay As You Go plan. He said he had a $100 dollar a year plan too. She came back to me asking about this. I searched the Web and the AT&T web site. I couldn’t find this plan on the site. I did find a mention of the $0.10 a minute plan, but no mention of which phones are eligible. I couldn’t find any $100 AT&T Pay As You Go refill or yearly service cards either. I started to think maybe her friend, bought a basic phone with this plan, and moved the SIM into his iPhone. She wanted to ask him about it, but he was traveling.

Well, Nancy, took action, she went into the AT&T store. She asked about the plan and sure enough she walked out of the store with a new $100 dollar a year plan, with no activation fee. They even gave her a free nano SIM for the iPhone 5.

Here are the details.

  • Its $0.10 a minute, (or $100 for 1000 minutes)
  • nationwide Text Messages are $0.20
  • nationwide MMS Picture Messages are $0.25
  • international text messages are $0.25
  • international MMS Picture Messages are $0.50
  • data is $.01 for 5KB but supposedly only works on basic phones, not smartphones.

I took a look at the her iPhone for a bit. She isn’t getting Visual Voicemail though. It also looks like AT&T is sending her voicemail notifications. She claims she is paying for them. It seems after every call, her phone reports the cost of the call or transaction and, I think, the remaining balance. I’ll have to look at that closer, I know the T-Mobile $100 plan didn’t do that.

So, I kind of learned a lesson here. I should have just went into an AT&T store and asked about it. I made an assumption that they wouldn’t help me use an iPhone 5 or other smartphone with this plan. I should have known better. The guys in the T-Mobile store were super helpful with their $100 plan.

And Nancy is happy, she can make and receive phone calls, She can send text messages when needed. She can use Wi-Fi to go online. She has all the apps she wants. She has an awesome camera in her pocket. And her cell phone bill is less than $8.50 a month!

And you can do this with any smartphone too. You don’t need a $500+ new unlocked iPhone. You can buy a used one for a few hundred dollars. There are some great Android phones like the Google Nexus 5, and the Motorola Moto X and Moto G. The Moto G sells for $179 new on Amazon.com! If you are a Windows user, the Nokia Lumia 520 with Windows Phone 8 is only $60!