I just recently came back to the US and had to get a new SIM card (which you can get on Amazon for about $0.25+shipping (should come out to less than $2), a lot cheaper than the $10 AT&T charges). I don’t want to subscribe to their plans that give you unlimited voice or text messaging as I rarely use my cellphone service. I really just want to have it in case of an emergency.

The best option for me is the 10c/minute plan as I can purchase a $25 credit that’s good for 90 days. That comes out to around $8.33/month to get cell service. Unfortunately, AT&T seems to have changed the SIM activation process and you can’t get this option is you try to activate the SIM card using an IMEI number from a smartphone.

I’m not sure why they started doing this. My guess is they figured that people with smartphones will probably take advantage of Wi-Fi and use Google Voice, Whatsapp, Skype, etc. to make calls and send messages for free which hurt their bottom line. Wi-Fi is also easily available in most places nowadays that paying for a data plan may not even make sense for a lot of customers (especially since they’re so expensive). This is exactly what I do and that’s why I don’t want these expensive subscription plans.

The good news is, there’s a way around it. All you have to do is use an IMEI from an old phone that is not a smartphone. You won’t even need to put the SIM card to your old phone, which is good because I couldn’t find the charger for my old phone. Once activation is successful, I just simply inserted the newly-activated SIM card to my Dell Streak 5 smartphone and it worked. Just to summarize, here are the steps:

1. Go here for the online activation process and enter the SIM card number:https://www.wireless.att.com/GoPhoneWeb/goPhoneLanding.do?method=activatePayGo

2. Enter the IMEI number of a basiccellphone. All you need is the number, you don’t need to insert the SIM card to this phone to verify, so even a non-working old cellphone is fine. You can probably even find a number generator online.

3. On the page that lets you select the plan, you should see the option for the $2/day plan on days used or the 10c/minute plan. If you don’t see these options, the system probably thinks you have a smartphone, so go back and enter another IMEI.

4. If successful, simply insert your activated SIM card to your smartphone and it should work. You can buy a prepaid card or register online for a GoPhone account to load credit to it. If you don’t use your cellphone all that much, then the $25 prepaid credit which expires after 90 days would probably be the best value.

If you can’t find a working IMEI for a basic phone or couldn’t get the option to select the 10c/minute plan, you can also try calling AT&T and tell them you don’t need data and just want the 10c/minute plan.