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AT&T Doesn't Recognize Streak as an Authorized Phone as of 8/18/10
I thought this was interesting and frustrating enough to share with the community. I called AT&T on Friday to let them know that I put my SIM card in the Streak and update the IMEI. I told the lady I spoke with that I didn't want to change my plan at all. I just wanted to let them know I was using a different phone. I didn't really want to do that but I know that iPhone data, text messaging and voicemail plans will not work on other phones. So, I'm using everything perfectly fine over the weekend after they reset my voicemail and then I get an automated email from AT&T stating that they noticed I had a Smartphone and that they added a data plan to my account for me. That on top of the fact that I wasn't able to send or receive texts lead me to call AT&T customer service today. Long story short, the CSR told me that the device comes up in their system but that it does not show that it is an "authorized AT&T device". Needless to say, I was a little shocked to hear this. I asked him if he was able to look at the Dell website to research this and he told me that he could not do that. Before getting completely enraged at the stupidity of AT&T as a company not being up-to-date with a new product from a company as big as Dell, I asked if this prevented me from being able to use the phone until the information is updated in their system and he said it would not prevent use. So, I don't really understand why this happened or how long AT&T will be stupid about this but I thought I'd share so that others won't be surprised.
nb_mitch
31 Posts
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August 18th, 2010 16:00
Do you now have an Iphone plan and Smartphone plan that you are paying for? Did they convert it to an unlimited "grandfathered" smartphone data plan or are you on a 2G smartphone plan? Just wondering if you verified everything is good when they claim they can't determine what your phone is?
You don't have a beta phone do you?
sakanagai
9 Posts
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August 19th, 2010 07:00
It really doesn't matter what AT&T thinks about the Streak. If you have an AT&T smartphone plan (and the iPhone plan most certainly counts) and a GSM handset that is both compatible with their frequencies and not locked to a different carrier, you can pop in your SIM card and have at it. My Nexus One still doesn't get recognized on the device level by their system, but has no trouble operating on their network.
jsampsell
2 Posts
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August 19th, 2010 08:00
They did remove the iPhone data plan and give me a Smartphone plan but the CSR supposedly sent a request to give me the unlimited plan back since that's what I had previously. I have a feeling that will never happen. As of right now, they've got me on a 2GB plan. And, no, I shouldn't have a beta phone since I purchased it last Thursday after getting the pre-release email and it arrived the next day. My assumption is that it would not be a beta phone. The CSR did have some kind of document about the beta Streak but that was it. Nothing else.
I am fully aware that, unless locked to a specific carrier, you can use any GSM phone with either of the GSM carriers. I was merely surprised that AT&T would not show a phone released from such a well known company as an unauthorized AT&T phone. Dell's website eve states on their that it works with AT&T only and there are a LOT of people on the internet that are miffed about that fact and are sending the phones back to Dell. The argument being that if they choose to pay the higher price for the phone without a contract and subsidizing the price, it should be an unlocked phone. That's not the case as I'm doing the research.
Anyhow, I again was only giving a heads-up to anyone that may have to call AT&T about their phone. I'm probably going to send mine back or sell it on eBay because overall I don't care for it over my iPhone 3GS. That's a different conversation, though.
whostorm05
7 Posts
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August 22nd, 2010 01:00
I removed my sim card from my iphone 3g, placed it in the Streak and everything is working fine. I haven't had to change a thing yet with AT&T.
GaiaResident
1 Message
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August 22nd, 2010 20:00
I removed the sim card from my iphone 3g and put it on the streak, called att, and had them change my plan from iphone unlimited to smartphone unlimited.
Even though their system doesn't show/recognize "dell streak" , they were able to switch the plan without any problems. Though they did have to transfer me to the att laptop customer service to complete the switch.