yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] jinksd:
This is what is currently showing on the account. As of a few minutes ago.

Blurred areas are the name on the account.
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
Like I said, that's a good news. Please keep us updated by posting every day if you still have it. I think if you are past a couple of days then you are fine.

☞ sent from GS3 or Nexus
[Galaxy S III General] jinksd:
I will keep posting. Thanks for starting the thread. At&t may be tightening the noose but many have benefited already. I had planned to get a new phone and get data anyway so I thought I would try this. Thanks again. :good:
[Galaxy S III General] foehammer92:
Agreed i think if you get passed a week you should be safe. But no guarantees lol

Anyone know why i can't see attached stuff? I haven't been able to see any of the pictures you've attached
[Galaxy S III General] SmiLey497:
I have a weird thing going on in where my at&t shows no data usage. The only time it did was when I used my one x.
[Galaxy S III General] jinksd:
I don't know why that is. I assume others can see the attachments but I am not sure.
[Galaxy S III General] suleiman.aql:
So I called them using a dumb phone (the tiny sim card somehow fitted there) and asked them why was the unlimited data plan that I requested replaced by a limited one?... They said that the system has detected a smart phone and switched it automatically. I told them that this is a mistake and I want my unlimited plan back. They said okay "but our systems are designed to detect smart phones automatically, and if they detect your Galaxy S3 again, you'll be switched back to the limited data plan automatically" I told them whatever, I'm using a dumb phone!... They gave me the unlimited data plan again, but I'm surprised that they mentioned the galaxy S3 even though I didn't say anything and didn't use the imei of the s3...

Background story:

Call#1: requested unlimited data plan using the s3's imei. They said this IS a smart phone and it's an s3.

Call#2: requested unlimited data plan using a dumb phone's imei and they accepted my request

3 days later, I'm back to limited. Some of you suggested that I call again and complain about the sudden removal, which I did.
[Galaxy S III General] jinksd:
Just checking in. So far nothing has changed. The GS3 has been up and running since 07/13/12.
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
That's great. You put the hope back in us. Can you pm me first 7 digits of your imei so that I can compare it with mine?

☞ sent from GS3 or Nexus
[Galaxy S III General] daveop:
I've been good for weeks now. I even used almost 4gb of data last month and was not flagged. Still on dumb phone unlimited. :D
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
Its same with me...

☞ sent from GS3 or Nexus
[Galaxy S III General] BarryH_GEG:
The TAC in the IMEI is public information and the same for all of a particular make and model of phone. It's no different than the first characters of a car's VIN. The only part that's unique and shouldn't be shared is the device serial number.

"The model and origin comprise the initial 8-digit portion of the IMEI/SV, known as the Type Allocation Code (TAC). The remainder of the IMEI is manufacturer-defined, with a Luhn check digit at the end."

Want to see just how public the information is and easy it is for AT&T to identify a device? Enter your eight digit TAC here.

http://imei-number.com/imei-number-lookup/

Here's what comes back on mine.
[Galaxy S III General] cmd512:
Same here, several GB last month and nothing. Have we come to the conclusion that going from a smartphone plan to the dumbphone medianet gets you flagged? Would make sense in my case as I signed up to AT&T with a dumbphone package.
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
I did not... I came directly from a smartphone data plan to dumb phone... its getting really strange now.

☞ sent from GS3 or Nexus
[Galaxy S III General] cmd512:
You squeezed through the cracks, haha!
[Galaxy S III General] foehammer92:
Hmmm if jinksd is good for another two days, I think i will began my process! To start I am on a smartphone data plan now so anyone think i should switch back to my old dumbphone and get medianet on that until i order/receive my gs3 (which i will be ordering from expansys most probably)?

If not, how do you think i should go about doing this?
[Galaxy S III General] qwer777:
Which plan are you all on? I'm wondering about the total monthly bill and just how cheap I can make this.
[Galaxy S III General] jinksd:
I am getting a little more hopeful myself now. It is still working this morning. :fingers-crossed:

One thing still concerns me though.

The online information hasn't changed to a generic picture of a cell phone. It is still showing the dumb phone that the sim was in before I put it in the GS3. I would feel more comfortable if that changed and I still didn't hear from at&t.

At some point I imagine the system will recognize that the sim isn't in the old dumb phone anymore and hopefully just update it to a generic dumb phone.

I will pm you the imei info.

---------- Post added at 08:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:13 AM ----------

From reading this thread. I have read most of it (not all). It appears that pre paid has been flagged consistently and post paid has been flagged intermittently.

If I were you I would wait for awhile and see what happens with my account (as you noted). If everything works for awhile on mine I would probably do the following in your situation.

You would first want to decide do you think the int phone is a superior phone for whatever reasons you deem are important to you. If you would prefer the int phone given the price, service, etc. then I would probably proceed.

I would put my sim in a dumb phone now and sign up the for medianet immediately. Then order the phone from expansys or negri as the OP suggested. I ordered from expansys and I got a UK version I think (which may make a difference).

Also something to consider is that negri says the following in their return policy.

I called expansys and asked the following. If I purchase a phone from you and there is one dead pixel on the screen or any other minor flaw can I return the device for replacement with no restocking fees and they said not just yes but definitely with no restocking or anything.

I also ordered from Expansys because they are closer to my physical location.

When you swap the sim may be an important question but I am not sure what the answer would be to that. I swapped a couple days after putting the sim in the dumb phone.

---------- Post added at 08:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:39 AM ----------

I tried to pm you but it wasn't showing that it went through. Let me know if you don't get it.
[Galaxy S III General] graffixnyc:
I don't understand why I got flagged right away. I'm on a post paid account (only been with ATT since dec). I put the sim in the dumb phone and had the plan changed. It showed unlimited online for a while but after I put the sim in the gs3 I got flagged not even an hour later and got that text about having a smartphone. I logged in and it had changed from a unlimited to a 3gb plan.

When I looked up my phone it was is from Vodafone Netherlands.

I just dont understand why I got flagged so quickly when others did it after me haven't gotten flagged yet.
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
I have first 7 digits of imei of jinkxd now and only first three digit match with mine. Do you mind sharing the first 7 digits of your imei as a private message to me?

☞ sent from GS3 or Nexus
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
You are right mate... this is what came up here for me...

☞ sent from GS3 or Nexus
[Galaxy S III General] SONE9:
Shame there isn't a way to do this with Canadian providers :( I'm still shown as having an X10 to Rogers, but the plan is the same. Only thing that is different now is I can see my S3 having HSPA+ sometimes, whereas I'm pretty sure(could be wrong, never paid much attention) my X10 was not able to achieve this. If this is true, that's good enough for me since there are pretty much 0 good plans with Rogers -_-
[Galaxy S III General] cmd512:
Interesting, somewhat related update:

After switching over to the SGS3, I noticed an immediate drop in transfer rates on mediaNet. Not sure why, I fiddled with the FastDormancy and just about everything else... would get speeds up to 5Mbit/s occasionally, but usually, just could not get past 2-3Mbit/s.

Plan refreshed recently, and boom, hitting 7+Mbit/s consistently. I must've done something that triggered some oddball throttling last month on mediaNet, any of you encountered this before?
[Galaxy S III General] careyes:
First let me thank the original post and all the contributors. As a "noob" both to android and XDA, I was flying blind before studying this post, which ultimately convinced me to jump.

My GT-9300 Intnl version shipped from Expansys in mid June. I played with it for a week while I established a new dumb phone contract with AT&T "buying" a simple dumb phone which cost me nothing (free phone) with the new contract. I contracted unlimited voice, unlimited messaging $20 and and unlimited data $10. I activated the phone in the AT&T shop. Once home, I removed the SIM, cut it, placed it into the S3 and checked to see that the SIM registered. It did. From my land line I called AT&T and requested that they change the dumb phone I just activated to another dumb phone ("the new one is too complicated to begin using right away"). I told the rep that I have an old Samsung flip phone. When asked for the IMEI number I provided the IMEI from the new S3 (after feigning confusion in finding the IMEI). I restarted the S3 and voila! Unlimited data.

I check the account weekly to monitor any changes and so far so good. While I have not yet pushed the envelope on data usage (wi-fi is everywhere in SF) I have tethered my laptop several times on the road and push and pull a lot of data when not in wi-fi range. Smooth sailing thus far. There have been no changes to the plan, the image is a generic phone icon "unable to determine current device", and the IMEI number is from my S3.

Should my condition change (after a couple of billing periods) I will post.

Thanks again ceo.mtcl et all for your knowledge and willingness to share and help.
[Galaxy S III General] jinksd:
Something very interesting just happened. The phone image online changed to generic. Also I haven't heard anything from at&t. I am feeling a little better now. :fingers-crossed:
[Galaxy S III General] qwer777:
What $20 unlimited voice and text is this? I don't see it on their site.
[Galaxy S III General] IFireflyl:
I think they mean they got unlimited voice for an unspecified amount, unlimited texting for $20, and unlimited data for $10.
[Galaxy S III General] foehammer92:
That is good news man! I think im going to switch to medianet and back to my old dumbphone either today or tomorrow. Im going to order my phone from expansys although I've been finding better deals on eBay. I don't know if it would make a difference where the phone originated from.

Do you guys think it would make a difference?
[Galaxy S III General] jinksd:
Thank you and good luck. I hope it works out for you and continues to work for me.

The only reason I would be slightly leery of Ebay is if someone had tried to activate the phone or something prior to you getting it but that could be possibly taken care of by communicating with the seller on Ebay.

Also I am still unclear whether the phone being from the UK or not helps but when I first set up my phone it said language UK English or something similar (I know it said UK). Also I am not sure if this is a definite or even a good indication that it came from the UK.

Long story short I would probably pay a little (maybe not a lot) more and just go with Expansys.
[Galaxy S III General] BarryH_GEG:
Unlimited non-smartphone data is $15. If you add unlimited messaging for $20 it includes mobile-to-any-mobile calling and brings unlimited data down to $10. With M2AM your voice minutes only get used when you're calling a landline.
[Galaxy S III General] enkur:
I had an AT&T branded smartphone and then went to "dumbphone" and no issues so far. 3 weeks and counting and still on $10 medianet plan.
[Galaxy S III General] cmd512:
So this thing is a complete hit or miss, interesting...
[Galaxy S III General] BarryH_GEG:
It might also be regional. All the field equipment AT&T uses to run the network is different based on which merger partner originally owned it. A lot of it is old and hasn't been updated. Maybe their implementing checks where they can? Decoding IMEI's is certainly an option available to them.
[Galaxy S III General] cmd512:
Hey, as long as I don't wake up to that "as a courtesy" ****-a-cular message one morning... :D
[Galaxy S III General] BarryH_GEG:
I travel a lot so use their network pretty much coast-to-coast. If what I suggested is true, and their not just tracking i9300's, I'll probably get the message before you will.
[Galaxy S III General] cmd512:
Heh, I need to volunteer for more of those international business trips, can't track me when I'm on the other side of the pond!
[Galaxy S III General] racerex:
Interestingly enough, if you insist that you don't need the text messaging you can just sign up for the $10 unlimited data. I did that for my mom's smartphone earlier this year. She basically just has a voice plan and the $10 unlimited dumbphone data plan. Sweet deal:)
[Galaxy S III General] jinksd:
I am beginning to wonder more and more if the country of origin has something to do with being able to succeed at this. From what I can understand my phone came from one of the following countries.

XX = Österreich, Belgien, Frankreich, Deutschland, Ungarn, Italien, Spanien, United Kingdom (Western Europe)

Source: http://rootgalaxys3iii.com/download-samsung-galaxy-s3-latest-stock-firmware/

I went to the UK Samsung site, downloaded and used the Kies software to update. It updated me to the software noted in the image.

I wonder if at&t reads some product codes and not others due to some type of law or rule they have to follow?

A quick way to find this out would be for someone to post that has been flagged and has the xx in their firmware version.
[Galaxy S III General] foehammer92:
Hey what kind of sim did you use? Did you use a micro sim or did you cut your old dumbphone sim?
[Galaxy S III General] jinksd:
I cut my dumb phone sim. It is the same sim I have had for years.
[Galaxy S III General] :
Switching over to I9300

I live in Chicagoland area and i have the One X and "had" the AT&T version of the S3 but i returned it last night due to the losing IMEI scare going around and don't want to deal with that. I am going to buy the I9300 this weekend and am wondering are these APN settings in the OP still working good? Or do i need to use the same ones the One X has due to i am keeping my LTE data plan? Im keeping that plan due to i will still use my One X here and there. TIA!! :)
[Galaxy S III General] jinksd:
Just checking in with an update for anyone interested. I put the sim in the GS3 last Friday and everything is still ok. However I checked the site and the image representing the current phone I have reverted back to the dumb phone that the sim was in before the switch. Odd?
[Galaxy S III General] vinvam:
That generic image == good sign!

On my plan we have two GT-I9100s and a Moto D2G, none of which AT&T should recognize, and they all show that same generic phone.

It is odd though, that your account switched back to the RAZR... hopefully it'll switch back to the grayed out flip phone soon!
[Galaxy S III General] jinksd:
Hey vinvam. Would you mind going to your account online and looking under support then wireless and see what it shows for your number? That is what I did earlier that showed the Razr. I thought it had changed back. However under my at&t then wireless it is still showing generic.
[Galaxy S III General] BarryH_GEG:
Nice. I'm sure that won't draw thier attention. :rolleyes:
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
Holy moly cow ...

I thought I was bad at 4GB

☞ sent from GS3 or Nexus
[Galaxy S III General] BuddyLee:
Yep, 3 years and counting :cool:
[Galaxy S III General] kobexu:
Was anyone able to find the solutions of no internet access for international GS3's(i9300) on AT&T's $50 unlimited gophone plan?
[Galaxy S III General] vinvam:
<Actual Phone> - <What AT&T Support Site Shows>
GT-I9100 - LG Thrill
GT-I9100 - Unknown manufacturer - Unknown GSM
Moto D2G - Unknown manufacturer - Unknown GSM
Eternity - Eternity

This is weird because, all 4 lines were upgraded to Thrills and were't used at all. For some reason that first line got stuck on the Thrill, but the rest are expected. That first line is on the iPhone unlimited plan (grandfathered) and the second line is on Medianet. All 4 of these lines have been on their respective phones for ~ 10 months.

Based on this data I wouldn't read into what the support site shows. The OLAM page is updated more reliably and is a better indicator of what's going on in the system.
[Galaxy S III General] soraxd:
anyone else getting really really poor signal? what's the best modem for us in America on att?
[Galaxy S III General] jinksd:
I guess anyone looking online needs to make sure and look under att/wireless and not att/support. Thanks.
[Galaxy S III General] jinksd:
Just checking in. Everything looks good so far. Put sim in GS3 on 7/13/12.
[Galaxy S III General] alphahere:
I think GS3 data is blocked on the gophone system. Also AT&T recently blocked GNex on the gphone also. I know personally because it was work great until July 16, 2012. Install Gtech Net Tools and turn wifi off. Check your mobile ipconfig. If reason does not say "dataEnabled", Data is blocked. The best way to find out is add a data plan for the gophone. If it starts working with a data plan, this means the phone is blocked without a data plan.

Report back your results. Looks like straight talk unlimited is the only way to prepay and GS3.

I am monitoring this thread closely to see what prepay plan the international GS3 works on in the US.
[Galaxy S III General] lude219:
To the guy with 30gig of data...

....thanks a lot, bro. :rolleyes:
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
I'm one and a half month in bro. Using it from the day one (first week of June).

I'm about 5gb this month now. And four days remaining in billing cycle.

☞ sent from GS3 or Nexus
[Galaxy S III General] BuddyLee:
Anytime :rolleyes:
[Galaxy S III General] IFireflyl:
So my internet has slowed to below 1 meg speeds in the last month and a half. I'm going to try to go back to an old ROM I was using as I've been changing those, but I'm curious if anyone else has had this same experience. If others are having the same problem then I'm wondering if they're not throttling internet speeds for some of us. I really hope my issue is ROM related since that's an easy fix.
[Galaxy S III General] SlimJ87D:
Rom, and modem or nwk_inf can be the problem
[Galaxy S III General] IFireflyl:
I'm on the Omega 9 ROM. I'm going to go back to 7 real quick and see what happens.

EDIT: Going back to 7 (even on a full wipe) did nothing so I'm saying it's not the ROM. When I do a clean wipe does the ROM replace the modem or mess with that nwk_inf at all?
[Galaxy S III General] SlimJ87D:
I don't know. I've had my modem change and not change on Omega and I've had the nwk file get changed and not changed. It depends on if Indie chose to wipe or change them or not.
[Galaxy S III General] IFireflyl:
Reverting to an older OMEGA ROM did nothing. Changing the modem did nothing. Toggling Fast Dormancy did nothing. I don't know what else to try. I appear to be stuck with less than sub-par data speeds...
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
May be possible that your network is getting heavy usage these days. Let me try what speeds are here at my place and you can compare it with my speeds in OP.

Edit: I'm getting really bad speeds today. I'm stuck at 3000 to 3500kbps as compared to 6000± that I usually get. However, this is basically due to network congestion I think. I'll try another test in an hour to rule out that possibility.

☞ sent from GS3 or Nexus
[Galaxy S III General] IFireflyl:
My speeds were going solid at 6000 to 7000kbps for over a month. Then it's suddenly dropped to 500 to 2500kbps. It NEVER gets higher than 2500kbps now, and it's usually below 1000kbps. I don't know what happened.
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
Well I did test again and I got the speed back...

☞ sent from GS3 or Nexus
[Galaxy S III General] SlimJ87D:
Yeah it can vary by location and people. At a concert I was getting 500.

Lastly it can also just be ATT's fault. Back in 08 at my University ATT was renting a tower from T-Mobile. When the lease was up T-Mobile kicked them out and suddenly all over campus we had poor data speeds and almost absolutely no reception. It took about 2 months for ATT to finally build their own tower till the problem was fixed.
[Galaxy S III General] kobexu:
Thanks for your reply. I've added a $5/50MB data feature to test it out and data works. Looks like GS3 is blocked, not sure how AT&T can tell it's a GS3. So now my question is would it be the same with non-smartphone data on post-paid plans?
[Galaxy S III General] BarryH_GEG:
http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=28866086&postcount=1101
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
Wow! I wonder how at&t shared T-Mobile's tower, don't they work on different frequencies?

Checking in again with speed test. Everything back to normal for me.

☞ sent from GS3 or Nexus
[Galaxy S III General] cmd512:
I was consistently getting sub 3Mbit first month with the SGS3 even though my girlfriend's SGS2 would pull 5Mbit+ right next to it. A month later, back to 7Mbit+, had to have been throttled on mediaNet.
[Galaxy S III General] :
Are there any Regional Modems that we should be using here in the U.S.? Im currently on XXLFB and get mediocre speeds. Or does that not matter?
[Galaxy S III General] Baldilocks:
I have the same modem and my speeds vary by location. I am on MediaNET Unlimited, by the way.
[Galaxy S III General] IFireflyl:
I think you're right. I'm not sure why they think they should be doing that since I don't even hit a gig of bandwidth in a month.
[Galaxy S III General] alphahere:
Check out this thread for another option besides postpaid. This looks like best prepay option.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1712141&page=15

Later
[Galaxy S III General] IFireflyl:
If you guys that are getting over 4000kbps go into Settings, About Device, and then Status what do you see under "Mobile network type"? The reason that I'm asking is that last night my mobile network type went to HSDPA:9, and when it's on that I'm getting 5000 to 7000kbps. It keeps switching to HSPAP:15 though, and I noticed that that's when it's getting the 500 to 2500kbps.
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
☞ sent from GS3 or Nexus
[Galaxy S III General] IFireflyl:
It looks like I found the culprit. Good news is it isn't my phone. Bad news is I can't fix it. Sad day.
[Galaxy S III General] :
my HSPDA:9

AT&T

I'm in a bad building too so probably why I'm getting bad speeds. I usually get around 3-6 megs down.
[Galaxy S III General] racerex:
Any people with international GSIII on AT&T experiencing the problem I'm having? Basically I noticed that earlier this year AT&T started throttling my data if I was simultaneously on a phone call. This crippling of the data rate makes surfing the web basically impossible if I'm on the phone. Or for example if you use your phone as a hotspot and at the same time are on a call it makes the hotspot basically useless.

Before people say it's my Samsung GSIII or SIM card, I'd like to highlight that I first noticed this problem on my Sony Ericsson Arc S. One day I could browse the web at 6Mbps download and 3Mbps upload while making a phone call and then suddenly the next day my data was crippled to a crawl (while making calls). Nothing changed with regards to my phone or SIM. And then when I switched to the GSIII and a new SIM card I still have the problem. This is so frustrating and it pisses me off to no end. This link describes what I'm seeing...

http://thesmartphonechamp.com/att-secretly-throttling-their-smartphone-customers-video/
[Galaxy S III General] cmd512:
HSDPA:9 here, LG6 modem working well: