iPhone on T-Mobile

My data works, things sync up, life is good. When I called T-Mobile last night, there were a couple things they needed to change, and a few things I did. The customer service rep was very happy to help, and when I said I had an iPhone, he didn’t blink. In the past I’ve bought unlocked phones and received less than enthusiastic responses. Apparently not so for the iPhone.

They changed my plan, which was the G1 plan, to their SmartWeb plan. he said it was the same price, so I assumed $24.95 a month. That’s less than the $30 ATT charges.

After that was done, he said it might take 24 hours to provision in the system. He also recommended that I talk to technical support to get settings checked. I was on my iPhone, so he called me back on the landline at the house, and then transferred me.

The tech support person verified my info and than had a few things for me to do on the iPhone. Again, he didn’t miss a beat that this wasn’t a phone that T-Mobile sells. After helping me with settings, and offering a few pieces of advice, I also got an email from him with a list of steps to follow.

1. From the Main Menu, tap Settings.
2. Verify that Wi-Fi is set to Off or Disabled -- this will ensure that no wi-fi signals are interfering with your Internet access. To take advantage of local wi-fi at a later time, feel free to go back and turn this setting On; just make sure to turn it Off again when you are done using the wi-fi network.
3. Tap General Settings, then tap Network.
4. Turn Data Roaming On -- this will allow your iPhone to locate T-Mobile’s data network.
5. If you see a setting for 3G, turn it Off -- the iPhone cannot currently connect to T-Mobile’s 3G network, and this setting will interfere with its attempt to connect to our EDGE network for service.
6. Tap Cellular Data Network (this setting may be labeled EDGE instead).
7. In the APN field, enter internet2.voicestream.com -- this tells T-Mobile which version of our Internet network you want to connect to.
8. Leave the Username and Password fields blank -- T-Mobile will assign this information based on your SIM card information.
9. Return to the Main Menu and open Safari to browse the Internet.

It was working when I went to town, and I was pleased with the service. Looking forward to working on the iPhone over the next few weeks.