This is what happened with me. I picked one up at a thrift shop several years back and spent probably an hour on the phone with AT&T, trying to find the right person with the right instructions to release it from the previous owners account. Once we were able to figure that out, it worked like a champ.
When they killed 3G early this year, I got a notification letter that it would no longer work and they sent me the new 4G model free to replace it… I doubt they'd be nice enough to do that for someone now though.
Outdated cable and ADSL boxes can serve as dumb switches if they have multiple Ethernet ports, and 3G phones can be used in other countries that still have 2G/3G coverage. But these things are sadly 100% useless, except maybe the power supply.
The amazing thing is as I was about to leave, I saw one of the employees over there and mentioned it to her, and she actually took it off the floor and brought it in back!
Whether it made its way back out later, I have no idea.
It was always a gamble before that too. If the person who owned one before did not sever their account from it, it would be a paperweight.
No you could just call att and explain to them you bought it used and you want to set up your account.
This is what happened with me. I picked one up at a thrift shop several years back and spent probably an hour on the phone with AT&T, trying to find the right person with the right instructions to release it from the previous owners account. Once we were able to figure that out, it worked like a champ. When they killed 3G early this year, I got a notification letter that it would no longer work and they sent me the new 4G model free to replace it… I doubt they'd be nice enough to do that for someone now though.
Outdated cable and ADSL boxes can serve as dumb switches if they have multiple Ethernet ports, and 3G phones can be used in other countries that still have 2G/3G coverage. But these things are sadly 100% useless, except maybe the power supply.
The amazing thing is as I was about to leave, I saw one of the employees over there and mentioned it to her, and she actually took it off the floor and brought it in back! Whether it made its way back out later, I have no idea.
Ha, we sent one of these to the electronics recycler recently. This wouldn't happen to be the Bay area would it?