MareLuce

Argh. So much for figuring out which SIM card in France to use.

AT&T won't unlock my Galaxy Note 2. Reason: I'm still under contract for another year.

The ATT rep told me this but encouraged me to try anyway.

--------- Response to Unlock request

Thank you for contacting AT&T Customer Care about unlocking your AT&T Mobile device.

We cannot complete your request for one of the following reasons:

- If you are under contract you must complete the contract period before your device can be unlocked.
- If you are a GoPhone customer, you must have 6 months of prepaid service.
- If you paid full price for your AT&T device and are a postpaid customer you must have at least 60 days of service with AT&T.

If you have questions, please review the AT&T Mobile Device Unlock eligibility requirements by going to this link, att.com/deviceunlock.

Thank you for your business. For other questions about our AT&T wireless service or Mobile devices, please visit att.com.


Sincerely,
The AT&T Customer Care Team

-------

I have a Huawei cell modem which is OK for work trips. But because the @#$% battery life is limited, when on vacation we end out still using our (locked) phones: Iphone 5, Iphone 5, Galaxy Note 2 + iPad mini, Nexus 7 tethered to them for part of the day. Last vacation even with the Huawei + iPhoneTrip.com SIM , the ATT bill with international roaming was staggering.

One mistake I made in planning for international roaming, despite reading this forum for hours, was:
- I am on a family Mobileshare plan
- Therefore, I thought that the ATT International roaming plan budgeted amounts for data, voice, and SMS text message would apply to all phones collectively on our Mobileshare plan.
It does not. The International Roaming amounts don't apply collectively to your devices like MobileShare does. EACH phone / device, even though it's on MobileShare needs its separate international roaming plan. (Or, If you realize this in advance, they can all tether to the main one with intl roaming plan on it and use Google Voice for calls.)

On upcoming vacation we'll have 5 devices needing connectivity. Because the Galaxy Note 2 has replaceable batteries and I have 4 spare batteries, I was going to get a microSIM for it and have all other devices tether to the Galaxy Note 2.

I went to a local ATT store to see if they could do anything. They can't. They said the unlock process is now online only.


------- ATT's recommendation will be almost $400 based on last year's vacation usage

Dear [me]

Here is the international roaming plan information that we discussed today:

On your line ending in xxxx we recommended:
300MB at $60
30Min at $30
Messaging 50 at $10

On your line ending in yyyy we recommended:
120MB at $30
30min $30
Messaging 50 $10

On your line ending in zzzz recommended:
800MB at $120
Messaging 50 at $10
80Min at $60

If you have further questions about...

-------

Has anyone had luck appealing for a temporary unlock to ATT?

Please, no lectures on why this is ATT policy. I understand their goal is to maximize profits. My goal is to minimize costs like this.


You can request an lock at https://www.att.com/deviceunlock/client/en_US/

MR_MAMA

there are services online that you can pay for that can unlock you for a few dollars, total legit, I did it when I went to Australia. It took less than 2 hours for the unlock to go through.

just do a search

MareLuce

Is ATT your in-US cellular company?

pseudoswede

Supposedly this works for AT&T phones...

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2014982

Need

They just changed their unlock policy! Used to be only iPhone needs your to fullfilled the contract. For Android or other smartphone, you just need to have it for 60 days and you could unlock it. This is sad.

But if you want to unlock your Note 2 yourself, it is pretty easy. I have an AT&T Note 2 and I unlocked it myself. You just need to follow the instructions posted in just about every Note II forums. The best one is posted on XDA forums.

Boogie711

Further to their point, I do NOT have a note 2, but I do have a Galaxy S3, and unlocking it was as simple as paying for an unlock code (I think I paid around $15 online) and following the instructions. It really was quite simple.

Need

It may not be as cheap now. AT&T has stopped unlocking bulk for 3rd party companies about a month ago....

http://www.maclife.com/article/news/..._sim_unlocking

pseudoswede

Probably the same instructions posted on XDA, too. It was posted for free, and people on ebay sell that exact same information.

DH

How about getting keepgo (former iphonetrip)? It works with locked AT&T phone.

boboqui

try http://xtremeunlock.com/index.php?ro...&product_id=62, they unlocked several of my iphones

normalone

This will probably be an unpopular opinion but here goes...

You are on vacation! Why do you need five devices all with talk, text, and data plans activated? Active the international plan on one line to use for emergencies and checking in and turn everything else off and relax.

SRQ Guy

Be an outlaw and unlock it yourself with the xda instructions. I can verify that it works fine.

MareLuce

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

Normalone,

If this were a chartered trip with all planning in someone else's hands, it might be easy to turn off the devices. But we like to plan our own vacations. As much as possible of the planning part will be done before we leave, but tour vendors and restaurants still make day before confirmation phone calls.
Ex: One restaurant's email said they will call the day before. If we don't confirm day before they'll cancel the dinner reservation. I will ask our hotel to do as much for us as possible, but sometimes its easier and faster to take the call or make the call myself.

Last year we used tech for:

- Entertainment on train rides and plane trips

We had 4 flights, 2 train rides, 1 car ride. I figured out how to put Flypaper (the movie) onto the iPad. Everyone really enjoyed it. I still remember the laughter. That was part of what made the vacation relaxing and fun on an otherwise long flight. Plus, it was an invaluable distraction when something went wrong.

- Google's "My Maps" navigation
The large data bill was primarily 16 days of Google Maps "My Maps" + navigation usage in Salzburg, Vienna, Prague, Berlin
We put pushpins where we wanted to go, and added notes on top of the Pushpins. This enabled spontaneity. When we had spare time, we could easily see and navigate to something someone wanted to see.

We would have been hopelessly lost in the cold and wind and rain in Prague without that. It's not like being lost in Venice. The weather was so bad on 1 day we nearly had a Mary Poppins moment from a rooftop near the Prague castle. (inverted umbrellas and all...)

- I missed not having access to Pandora, my favorite DJ

I appreciate Pandora especially when I travel.
Pandora provides a much better transition before going to bed than turning on the TV. With a DVR, TV is ok IF the remote holder fast forwards past all commercials within a millisecond of them starting. Otherwise, TV commercials make TV almost intolerable to me. I'll find a Christmas station and be set.

pseudoswede

This thread makes me appreciate T-Mobile's free global data roaming feature.

normalone

I appreciate your response. I'm still not seeing why you need all three things (which seemed to be priced separately per your earlier post) on all five of the devices. I completely agree that you need data for many of the activities you described - do you need to pay for it on five devices? Maybe not.

Maybe I'm just a luddite, I much prefer hard copy guide books that don't require reliable cell service and aren't likely to be stolen

Everyone has a lifestyle preference when it comes to their devices - and the cost/benefit trade off will be different for each of us!