Switching your Samsung Galaxy phone to a new carrier, the new AT&T GoPhone plan!

Years ago, I purchased a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S2 model SGH-T989 because of the Walmart Family Mobile plan. While the T-Mobile cell network had dead spots in their coverage of my area, this inexpensive unlimited, no contract, everything smartphone plan met my needs for as little as I used my phone. However, with the launch of my business ThatCyberSecurityGuy, LLC and having a new, January 2015 copyrighted cyber security book, I wanted better coverage so I investigated the switching of my phone to a new carrier.

After a lot of research I decided on the AT&T GoPhone plan.

• 4G LTE speeds on the AT&T network
• No annual contract, no credit check
• Easy activation
• Great plan choices to fit your needs
• Convenient and flexible - Renew your service when you need it for up to one year after your plan expires
• Variety of refill card plans at Walmart from which to choose
• Once plan is established you can purchase refill cards at any AT&T store easily with credit card or pay online

I chose the $45 plan that provides unlimited calls & texts, limited international texts and 1 GB of data. What is weird about this is that this plan is not listed at the AT&T / GoPhone website. To switch my phone to the new plan, I found out I needed something called an unlock code. This is intended to inconvenience customers as most mobile devices are programmed to prevent the device from operating with another wireless carrier network without first obtaining an unlock code. To get a 'unlock code' you have to meet your carriers unlock requirements. If you visit https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-1588 you will see the requirement for the various T-Mobile phone plans. In my example they were:

Unlock eligibility for monthly phones, tablets and mobile internet devices

The requesting line on the device must have been active on the T-Mobile network for at least 40 days on the requesting line.

• If the device is financed using T-Mobile’s Equipment Installment Plan (EIP), all payments must be satisfied and the device must be paid in full.
• If the device is on an account that is under a service contract term, at least 18 consecutive monthly payments must have been made or the account has migrated to Simple Choice no contract rate plan.
• If the device is associated with a canceled account, the account balance must be zero, including all pending charges.
• T-Mobile may request proof of purchase or additional information in its discretion and certain other exceptions may apply.

If you have a T-Mobile phone, you can visit https://support.t-mobile.com/community/contact-us, which has all their contact information. However, in my case I have a Walmart Family plan so I had to contact Family Mobile at 611 or 877-440-9758. (See: https://www.myfamilymobile.com) I knew that before I called I would need all my phone information, which required me to open it up, take out the battery, find a magnifying glass and write down all the phone information. After navigating their very lengthy automated phone question system and waiting on hold for a long time, I finally got a person on the line who did not speak English very well. That person then asked me for my passcode, which I did not have handy. I had written it down somewhere and stored it on my computer years ago.

I cried as I hung up to go search for the passcode. I finally found it, called back and an hour or two later after being on hold again I finally got a person on the line. My phone was going in and out on the network as he kept saying, "I could not hear that, why do you want an unlock code?" I finally shouted, "I think you can see why, because you can't hear me most of time!" He finally capitulated and gave me the unlock code but it was a long conversation and I could tell they really did not want to allow me to unlock my phone. I took the unlock code to Walmart and had them unlock the phone.

I needed to switch plans which required the purchase of a new SIM card. I could have purchased the AT&T card online for $4.95 but Walmart sells a universal SIM card kit for about $10 in case I want to use other networks. After purchasing the kit the Walmart employee swapped the phone SIM card and after I have purchased my first month on the GoPhone plan, he then switched my phone number to AT&T's. I knew I did not have the patience to navigate the Family Mobile phone system again without screaming… This took an extraordinary amount of time so I wandered around the store and did a little grocery shopping.

I'm thinking I'm done at last and take my phone home but for some reason I start getting text message errors about 50 times a day. I have no idea what is happening so I run the phone to an AT&T store… no one there knows anything… I go to the Walmart store and once again, no one knows anything. Weeks later, I corner the Walmart cell phone guru (this guy knows everything!) who helped me switch my plan and had described all my plan options in great detail and patience. He went to work on my phone, he pulled out the battery… no luck and then searched the smart phone websites he knew about and found an article on a T-Mobile application that was known to cause this problem. After another ½ hour of research he figured out how to delete the application and all was well at last, or so I thought. He suggested that I root my phone and update it to get all the old T-Mobile apps off my phone to which I replied, "Oh yeah, I'll have to do just that someday!"

I was being sarcastic but this project stuck in the back of my mind and I'm happy to say now, months later, I finally found time to do this and blog about it. Stay tuned as next month I describe how you can do this also.