How to spoof IMEI because AT&T forces $25 dataplan on any smartphone (even sans contract)

Don't know and don't care. I had exactly the same problem but with Verizon. If I activate a smartphone, Verizon will automagically tack on the cost of the data plan that I'll never use. I've tried to bypass this policy with Verizon and without any success. It's a cash cow for the cell providers as many users don't even realize that they're paying for an added data plan.

What I've done is remove the cellular provider from my data use and have been carrying two devices for about 1.5 years. One is a generic cell phone (LG VX8300) and the other is a jailbroken iPhone 3G that is NOT activated with AT&T. The phone does the talking while the iPhone

GSM is packet based. As far as I know, voice and data are the same, though I assume voice packets gets priority routing. So we are not talking just data, but voice too. EDGE has been hacked. 3G has sort of been hacked, but it is quite secure.

CDMA is where voice and data are different. The Verizon iphone 4 will not be able to do voice and high speed data at the same time. There is a chip (and I assume filter) in the works to allow this, but it won't make the first Verizon iphone 4. Thus the iphone 4 on verizon will be shittier than the iphone 4 on GSM, but fanbois won't care.

Basically the Verizon iphone 4 is to stop Android from eroding the iphone market. The product is so bad that Jobs didn't even show up for the announcement.

Not!

A brand new Blackberry Bold 9000, from AT&T. No SIM, no activation of any sort, was able to connect and surf via WiFi. The little "WiFi" indicator stayed dim, didn't go bright like it normally would with a data plan enabled SIM inserted.

or

For high speed (3G) data, yes. 2G (GPRS/EDGE) data will work on the "wrong" network. I use my 3G smartphones as 2G phones on T-Mo. (Ironically, I also have two T-Mo-branded 1700MHz 3G smartphones, but I prefer the Sony to either, so I put up with slower data.)

on

The only 1700/1900 3G smartphone I'm aware of is the Nokia N8, a Symbian- based device.

A dim "WiFi" indicator indicates that the device hasn't connected to a BlackBerry infrastructure yet. You may have a usable wifi connection at this point, but BIS and BES/MDS stuff won't yet be available.

This is expected when you haven't activated with a carrier or inserted a SIM since both are required for BIS access (and you'd know if you activated on a BES over wifi -- this seems to be possible with a valid SIM inserted, even if the cellular radio is disabled and the SIM isn't activated)

Any software that use direct TCP sockets (and therefore can go over wifi without relying on BIS or BES/MDS) will work, but HTTP libraries that rely on BIS won't.

Even the internal browser may work, if you set it to HotSpot mode.

BlackBerry 9780 supports HSPA: AWS (1700,2100), 2100 MHz GSM: 1900/1800/900/850 MHz.

Interesting. An iPod would work, too, if you're not using the 'phone bit of it. An iPad too, but they're expensive and bigger to carry around.

Not what? English please.

Precisely why I suggested 3rd party browsers that do not require BIS, and which I provided a means to install without OTA.

For wifi, I think the phone would work as is. For use on the air, presumably using airtime, the APN would have to be set. For instance, my APN (access point name) is set to epic.tmobile.com. No password requires. This is in the TCP/IP menu under options.There are lists of APN on the net for various providers.

Symbian-

Sorry if I wasn't clear- I meant the N8 had both 1700 AWS and 1900 UMTS in the same device (as well as 850 and 2100, IIRC. The only quad-band UMTS phone I'm aware of.)

The BB 9780 comes in two tri-band versions- one with 900/1700/2100 UMTS and one with 850/1900/2100 UMTS. The N8, therefore supports 3G on either AT&T or T-Mobile (or Rogers and Wind if you prefer!) while either model of 9780 would only support 3G on one or the other.

Ahh okay, I'm with you now. Carry on. :)

I find the image of a doctor "happy as a pig in sh*t" a bit septic. I do hope you scrub before attending to patients :-) .

Cheers, -- tlvp