can I just swap SIM cards on iPhones?

[DavidS]

My iPhone 4 is eligible for an upgrade. Since we only pay $10/month for my wife's line, however, she is not due until Feb 2012.

I'd like to upgrade my line to a 4S, but give it to her to use. Can I just put her current SIM in the new phone and the SIM from the new 4S in my old iPhone to have them work correctly?

[rgG]

I found this which seems to indicate you can. I know you can just swap SIM cards from one TMobile phone to another with no issues.

The SIM card is what lets your carrier know that you’re the account holder of the iPhone using it. So if you take your SIM card our of your iPhone and then put it into your friend’s iPhone and receive calls as though it were your own (assuming the SIM card is compatible).

Bonus Tip: So yes, if your iPhone runs out of power and you desperately need to use your voice or data plan, you can just swap the SIM into another iPhone or phone and use it with your minutes and data bucket. Or, if they’re running low on minutes or data, they can borrow your SIM card and use it with the apps on their iPhone until you need it back.

[Chakravartin]

> Can I just put her current SIM in the new phone and
> the SIM from the new 4S in my old iPhone to have
> them work correctly?

If you're both on AT&T, then it's do-able. (Verizon phones don't use SIMs.)

You could put the SIM from the 4S in the iPhone 4.

But unless your wife's old phone uses a Micro SIM (which is unlikely) you're going to have to trim her old SIM to fit it in the iPhone 4S.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/06/how-t...e-and-som/

[NewtonMP2100]

....and wives too.....

[Mr645]

It worked when I took the sim from my Nokia flip phone and put it in an iPhone 3G. About a month later I noticed that the $15 mo data plan was added to my account and AT&T would not delete the data plan as long as I was using the iPhone.

[Winston]

We have swapped SIM cards among iPhones with no difficulty.

Mr645 wrote:
It worked when I took the sim from my Nokia flip phone and put it in an iPhone 3G. About a month later I noticed that the $15 mo data plan was added to my account and AT&T would not delete the data plan as long as I was using the iPhone.

Yep. We wanted to do that too with my wife's old iPhone 3g. AT&T is really being nasty about that, as they will allow other smart phones (or phones with smart phone features) to be used without a data plan, but absolutely refuse to do so for an iPhone. It's one of the things that has undermined our relationship with AT&T.

If Verizon's iPhones are unlocked for SIM use (or can be unlocked) for use abroad, I will seriously consider moving our family to Verizon next time we do a major phone upgrade.


Good luck.

- Winston