Board 8 > Phone Questions

(+) Yeah! (+)

So right now, the phone I use is a line tied to my parent's ATT account. I want to get my own account and change phones. Since right now I don't have an account with anyone, I could just go with any carrier I want and set up a new account. I guess my question would be, does it make more sense to take this ATT line and separate it into its own account (which I think is possible), or just go with a different carrier altogether?

I DO want to get a new phone. This line I'm on has ATT Next, so I can upgrade now.
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If you want to buy an unlocked phone (you pay it off all at once, but don't have carrier bloatware or the encouragement to replace it annually), then you should stay with AT&T since they're a GSM carrier. They support you bringing in your own phone if you want to. If not, coverage tends to vary by area - so I don't know which of AT&T, Verizon, US Cellular, T-Mobile (the other GSM carrier), or Sprint has the best coverage for you...

It just depends on what you want to do for your phone, really.
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As far as coverage goes, I think everything is OK here and I also haven't had problems with AT&T.
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Do you know what phone you want to get?

Also you can split from a line and make your own but the account holder has to also agree to it. I'm not sure if this has to be down in an actual store or not.
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It'd probably be either an iPhone 8 Plus or iPhone X, but I'm really leaning towards 8 out of those.
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Okay in that case depending on what deals are offered by the carrier I might suggest getting the device directly from Apple. Im not sure how att handles their iPhones. I know Verizon does not lock their phones

The ones you get directly from Apple are open phones which means that they will work with just about any carrier but will lock to the first SIM card you use and activate on the phone.
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What's the purpose of getting the phone from Apple if it just locks to the first SIM card you put in? That's another thing, if I did get a new phone instead of upgrading that means I lose everything since it is all on my current phone/SIM card right?
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Some carriers actually prelock phones and install their own apps and such on the device.

Also stuff is typically no longer saved on the sim anymore. Everything is cloud based. The real headache would be if youre an android user going to Apple but you should still be able to import your address book via gmail.
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Still, wouldn't my easiest course of action be to use this AT&T Next to upgrade the phone, then seperate this line into its own account?
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GANON1025 posted...

Still, wouldn't my easiest course of action be to use this AT&T Next to upgrade the phone, then seperate this line into its own account?

What are your requirements for upgrading with next ?
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im thinking about getting a new phone! my samsung s5 is taking too long to open snapchat lately and then the moment i want to capture is over. this is unacceptable. eww iphone though. I'm thinking either a pixel 2 or an s8. Maybe an s9 but i don't really want to pay anything upfront and I think with my provider I'd have to or trade in my s5, which i want to keep as a bluetooth spotify streamer. s9 might be too new and therefore expensive

as for your situation, it sounds to me like your options are

1) see what providers are willing to give you as a new customer and sign up your own account to begin with. Advantage here is that you can see what all of the providers here offer and not just AT&T, so there might be some good deals. Downside is you might lose your phone number and how many providers do you even have in the US? Like three?

2) Upgrade like you've suggested. You can almost certainly carve out your line onto your own account... it's super common for children to grow up and do this. The upgrade deal AT&T offers to an existing customer that you are eligible for might just beat the offers other providers will give you to sign up with them. Don't take this for granted though - this program is intended to retain you as a customer so it's quite good, but the offers for new customers are intended to steal you as a customer and are probably just as good.

It's just gonna take some research. Look at their websites, see what they offer, maybe go into a couple stores. I'm sure you were hoping board 8 would just tell you what you need to do (thats like half of why I still come here) but unless someone crazy like Digi comes in you probably have to figure it out yourself.
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wait for the new iPhone this year before you upgrade
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GranzonEx posted...

wait for the new iPhone this year before you upgrade

That's probably a good idea.
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