The dilution of “4G”

So, iOS 5.1 changes iPhone 4 and 4S handsets on AT&T to show “4G” instead of “3G”.

4G was originally defined in 2009 by standard body ITU-R as “peak speed requirements for 4G service at 100 Mbit/s for high mobility communication (such as from trains and cars) and 1 Gbit/s for low mobility communication (such as pedestrians and stationary users)” (quote from wikipedia). Then the carriers got hold of it and started redefining any old thing they had as “4G” because it sold better that way. The latest trick is that even absoultely-just-3G-with-bells-on standards like HSDPA are “4G” too. The graph below shows just how low we’ve come.

Don’t believe anyone who tells you that Apple stands firm against the worse excesses of the carriers. This is pure capitulation to AT&T’s marketing department.

Update: According to various folk on Twitter, some recent Android handsets indulge in this too. Windows Phone 7, on the other hand, shows a far-more-honest “H” to denote go-faster 3G modes like HSDPA. The Windows Phone 6 handset I was using in 2006 did this too.

I am also grateful to several Twitterers who introduced me to the perfect phrase to describe this shady re-branding: “faux G”.

(HT to Brian Klug for checking my numbers for me.)

The no-nonsense guide for travellers to using an unlocked iPhone with AT&T USA

Scenario: you (like me, a month ago) are going to the United States for a trip. You have an unlocked iPhone you can use with any carrier world-wide — but you are confused by the lack of a “sell me an iPhone SIM card” option on AT&T’s Byzantine website. You want to make your phone work with a minimum of hassle. You’ve looked at various sites and guides but you’re still confused. You want the ability to make a few short calls and have a decent amount of mobile data for Google Maps and TripAdvisor and Yelp and other touristy things. Here’s what you do.

Before you travel

Buy a SIM — you want an “AT&T GoPhone SIM card”, which is almost certainly available from eBay, wherever you may be in the world. I paid about £6 each for two (one for me and one for my wife).

Activate your new SIM — once you have the SIM card in your possession, go to AT&T’s website to activate it. You’ll need two numbers: the one on your SIM card, and an IMEI number. This is a special unique code that all GSM mobile phones have. Now, this bit is a little tricky. If you use an iPhone IMEI, AT&T is going to fail the activation with a mysterious message, because for some unfathomable reason it doesn’t want iPhones on GoPhone. You need to get hold of an IMEI that isn’t from an iPhone — perhaps from an old phone you own, or from a friend’s. It doesn’t matter what number you use, it’s not going to lock the phone or make the SIM only work in that phone or anything like that.

IMEI numbers are usually on a sticker under the battery and will be displayed on the screen if you dial *#06#. Once you have these numbers, complete the registration form on AT&T’s website. Once you’re done, you’ll be told your new phone number — make a note of this.

Choose your plan — there are two obvious choices for a short trip to the US. If you expect to be using the phone for fairly extensive voice and/or SMS messaging, the “$2 Daily Unlimited Plan” gives you unlimited minutes and texts for $2/day. Just like it sounds. On the other hand, if you don’t think you need the phone much, the “10¢/minute” plan charges (surprise!) 10¢ per minute for calls and 20¢ each for texts. The latter plan is probably a better deal for tourists. I’ll discuss data billing in a second.

Cut it down — if you’re using an iPhone 4 or 4S, you need a microSIM, but you (almost certainly) have a mini SIM instead. You’ll need to cut it down to fit. I used a SIM cutter like these ones, but you can do it with a sharp knife if you’re careful.

Buy calltime credit — I used CallingMart without any problems, but there’s lots of alternatives. You’ll need the new AT&T phone number you were allocated at activation and a Paypal account or credit card. Note that sometimes with CallingMart, the first order on a new account goes through a manual verification process, so you’ll need to allow enough time before you travel to do this. You want a “AT&T GoPhone Prepaid Wireless Airtime Minutes Refill” and you probably want $35 of credit (so, $25+$10). You can use AT&T’s official site but it’s fiddly to register for, demanding a lot of details like your address and whatnot.

Just before you leave

Get an APN profile — again, you’re Not Supposed to use GoPhone with iPhones so when you turn it on your iPhone isn’t going to know how to talk to the network for data. We can fix this, though. Go to unlockit.co.nz on your phone, not your computer. Select “Custom APN”, “USA”, and select the “AT&T” profile. There’s lots of variant options there, like “AT&T (isp.cingular)”; the one that worked for me was plain “AT&T”. Tell the site to email this profile to you and file that email away on your iPhone for later.

On the plane

Change SIMs — pull out your usual SIM card and swap the AT&T one in. Obviously your iPhone should be in Airplane Mode during this process!

After arriving

Power up — turn your phone back on or turn Airplane Mode off, depending on how you had it deactivated. You should soon see your iPhone register on the network, and an “AT&T” logo appear at the top left. At this point you have voice and SMS service, but no data (yet).

Buy a data package — dial 1 (800) 901-9878 and navigate through the voice menus to “buy feature package”, “buy data package”. AT&T offer three fixed data packages: $5 for 10 MB, $15 for 100 MB, or $25 for 500 MB. If you’re planning on using your iPhone normally, you probably want the third option; if you’re on a budget or a very short trip you might be able to get by with the middle one. Once you buy the package, the data will last for thirty days.

Install profile — go in to your email and find the one you sent yourself from unlockit.co.nz. Tap the file attachment and confirm that yes, you’d like to install this file.

Test your data — if it doesn’t work, you probably need a different profile from unlockit.co.nz. These things seem to change sometimes so my advice will probably not work forever. You’ll have to find some Wifi first though, to get the phone online and download the profile. If you want to hedge your bets against this, you could email yourself all the different AT&T profiles ahead of time.

During your trip

Check your balance — dial 611 at any time to check your cash balance. Say “check my feature packages” to check how much of your data package is left.

Top up — if you need to, you can buy GoPhone credit at most major grocery stores.

After you come back

Swap the SIM — on the plane on the way back, swap back over to your normal SIM card.

Delete the profile — on your iPhone, go to Settings | General | Profile, click the AT&T profile, and click “Remove”. This puts your phone settings back to how we found them.

Keep the AT&T SIM — you can probably reuse it on your next trip. Depending on how much credit you put on it might even still be valid — the maximum $100 top up lasts for an entire year.

(Hat-tip to Nik Fletcher, who wrote a guide that served as the basis to mine. I’ve added a few small extra things over his notes, like emailing yourself the profile and the AT&T automated customer service numbers.)

What if I already have a GoPhone handset?

If (for whatever reason) you already have a spare GoPhone handset, and you want to prise the SIM card out and repurpose it in an iPhone, you’ll have to jump through some extra hoops because the SIM will be locked to the handset it was sold in. However, you can get AT&T to unlock it for you. My pal Guillermo has written a short guide on how to get this done.