[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Magickly:
the LowDown on GoPhone Sims with Galaxy Tabs

Hey All!

Here's the lowdown on the GoPhone plans with gsm Galaxy Tabs

I usually use wifi, but wanted to be able to leave a sim in my P6800 for when I need 3G or for the occasional phone calls. These ideas will likely work best for those who have similar goal.

Took some digging, but this is what I learned...

This is all in reference to prepaid GoPhone service & calling plans, not tablet plans. With any dealings, I tell them it's a Samsung Phone. After all, our tabs are phones :)

You can purchase a sim without a phone (amazon,ebay,bestbuy), or you can buy a cheap gophone & swipe sim from that.

At&t GoPhone likes to lock their sims to the first activated device for 6 months, but they will unlock if you call them & say you want to switch phones.

I usually activate with an old phone imei (sprint touch pro 2, or cheapie gophone) then call & unlock. Often reps will tell you sim needs to be in original activated device to unlock, this is not true. Call back for diff rep.

With my first tab, I bought a cheapie $15 samsung GoPhone @ walmart, popped sim into my tab & activated it online using the imei of my p1000n, so sim locked to my tablet, which was fine (AT&T doesn't appear to have imei #s for non ATT phones in their database, so they didn't know it was a tab). I called a month later & got it unlocked tho, & used in my unlocked imagio with no problem. If the sim is locked to a device, whenever you try in a diff device you will receive sim crash or similar error message.

Once unlocked, you can swap sim to any other unlocked or att device. If your tab batt is dead or your BT headset is fading, it is cool to be able to pop out the sim & pop into a phone, so you're not left incommunicado. I popped it into my tab, then tapped settings, wireless & networks, mobile network, search. It found AT&T & TMo, I chose AT&T. The APN should auto configure but I DID need to tap the select dot to make it green.

For those who haven't heard, AT&T recently doubled the GP data feature packs so you can now get 1GB for $25... 200MB $15... 50MB $5. Basically, you need to be on a calling plan, and you can add on data feature packs

Calling Plans include $2/day unlimited talk & text & 10c a minute 10c text & a few other plans which include some talk & text minutes or unlimited all for $50/60. They also offer some international calling & texting as well. Check their site gophone.com. Neither the 10c/minute or $2/day plan includes any data. You need to purchase a data feature pack, which is good for 30 days AND rollsover if you refill for as little as $5.

On the $2/day plan, you are charged ONLY if you (send or receive) call or text, not if you use 3G or if you receive a voicemail. You will be charged if you call into your voicemailbox tho. GoPhone does have conditional (busy/no answer)call forwarding, so you can setup a google voice account & have google voice handle your voicemail. GVoice can email &/or text your voicemails messages android google voice app, so you don't need to call at&t voicemail.

I have discovered that you can read short sms preview without being hit with the fee. I think opening the actual text is what triggers the fee, YMMV. I abandoned the $2/day plan cuz I kept using the tablet messaging app instead of Google Voice for texting was getting hit for the $2. I now use the 10c a minute plan with a data pack. I have read of others who have successfully used unlimited talk/text/web plan with smartphones & it worked, but I didn't bother with that, as AT&T signal is kinda crappy where I am, so I am a PagePlus plan girl.

You need to keep your plan active, but that's easy enough...

$ 15 Refill = 30 days expiration *minimum to maintain account balances

$ 25-$75 Refill = 90 days expiration

$ 100 = ONE YEAR EXPIRATION !!!

When you refill, the money sits on your account until you spend it on a calling plan or data feature packs. You can activate & load your account and leave the balance until you spend on calls or a data feature pack, but if you let your account expire you lose whatever balance is in there.

Regardless of the plan expiration, data packs must be used or renewed every 30days to rollover, but you can renew for the minimum $5 & keep your data rollin

Last I checked, the max data you were allowed to stockpile was 3GB, but that was before they doubled the datapacks. If your data is used up or expires, you don't need to renew the package until you want/need to, OR you can refill minutes or renew data pack sooner than your expiration.

The renewals can be setup via your phone/tablet, or via their website.

Website offers auto renewals for calling plan AND data packs independently, so you need not worry & they also send you reminder texts & emails. They offer a lot of online account management features (unlike BoostMobile).

Remember, all funds rollover as long as you refill before expiration. Data packs must renew every 30 days to rollover, or use it up or let it expire & only add data on the months you need it! Online account management for worry free renewals.

My sister has 7" GTab SGH-i987 on an ATT Prepaid $15 Month to Month 2GB Tablet plan. She can text & surf, but no calls. I tried her sim in my P6800 & it worked, but same deal. I did notice in mobile network settings, her APN pulled as Broadband, where my gophone uses APN Settings for Cingular. Data speed with her ATT sim was similar to GoPhone sim, but no phone calls.

Anyways, I hope this lengthy post is helpful to other peeps who want total phone & data freedom