Want a Cheap Aircard? Nokia 3555 + Sidekick Prepaid = $1/Day 3G Broadband Card

The folks over at PhoneNews have hacked the Nokia 3555 to work with the T-Mobile Sidekick Prepaid plan.

This is a hot deal because it's their first 3G prepaid phone, and this gives it unlimited data for $1/day. You can then use it as a broadband card for your Mac or PC, via USB or Bluetooth. (Yeah, the Sidekick 3G was first, but it can't tether/sling internet).

Hack looks pretty straightforward, just involves going through a lot of menus. And, with the recent price-drop on the 3555... it's not a bad backup phone either. AT&T charges $45 for a refurb, non-camera 3G prepaid phone. This one has a camera, and isn't a refurb.

LINK

Mod Note: Yes, I know the Nokia 3555 price drop to $30 was covered before. This is a completely different deal because of the Sidekick Prepaid plan.

is it $1 a day EVERYDAY or just on the days that you use them?

if its on the days that you use them then its a pretty hot deal.

EDIT: boo they charge you for everyday, even if you dont use them. so you are still looking at a $31/month....

Sidekick: Pay By the Day and Pay As You Go (including Gold Rewards program) plans not available for Sidekick customers. Calls 15¢/minute. Service is $1/day, even on days you do not use your phone.

Seems like it is everyday regardless if you use it or not,
Linky

Will the $1.00 be taken out of my account on days that I do not use my device?
Yes, the $1.00 is taken out of your account everyday.

The Nokia 3555 supports HSDPA on T-Mobile's 3G network. So, yeah, it's 3G.

As to the $1/day plan pricing... you can switch on a daily basis. But, you will be charged on days you have it enabled.

HCAA, no, UMTS band-types are incompatible.

And, did a google search, looks like this phone does UMTS but not HSDPA. It's still 3G, but you won't get multi-megabit speeds. Not that those ever stick around on a connection... still a good deal cheaper than buying a MyTouch 3G.

Very good information! Green for you.

glenatuf said: Nice deal...can the sim be pulled and used in another modem?

On a slightly different aspect ... is the SIM actually different?

I.e. can I move the (very old) SIM from my current T-Mobile prepaid phone into this one and expect the G3 services to work?

asuka said: bhyde said: glenatuf said: Nice deal...can the sim be pulled and used in another modem?

On a slightly different aspect ... is the SIM actually different?

I.e. can I move the (very old) SIM from my current T-Mobile prepaid phone into this one and expect the G3 services to work?

T-Mobile Prepaid uses the exact same SIM cards as regular T-Mobile accounts. Same with AT&T. Only non-American carriers use different SIM cards for prepaid accounts.

(Boost Mobile and Nextel use separate SIM cards, but they are separate companies... even though everyone considers Boost to be Nextel Prepaid, including Sprint).

Thanks Asuka. The prepaid/postpaid SIMs are identical - at least that's my experience. Having poked around a bit I think my question is: does T-Mobile US require a "USIM" for G3 access or will a classic SIM work. Browsing about it appears that T-Mobile europe has both, and the USIM is required by some carriers to get into their G3 networks. T-Mobile Europe doesn't require it.

Meanwhile the USIM has some other features: larger more feature full address book and text message storage.

Anyhow, it's not that big a deal switching the account to a fresh SIM, i.e. the one that comes with the phone, isn't hard.

Is it possible to unlock the phone and bring it to use in other countries? If so, it's a nice deal....

I'm a bit lost with all this talk of proxies and resizing images over the 3G network. I'd like to use the Nokia 3555 to work with the T-Mobile Sidekick Prepaid plan and tether with my Macintosh laptop, but I have 2 concerns:

would it be too slow to use with Skype or a VoIP service?

someone mentioned being able to turn on or off the $1 per day service for using 3G .. can anyone confirm this. e.g., I do not need internet M-F cause I have it at work, but can I then turn it on only for saturday and sunday (so it would be about $8 per month?)

Dead/Dying, T-Mobile is shutting down the hack according to howardforums.

Yep, looks like they have killed it. My 3555 arrived today and while it is possible to switch to sidekick prepaid, the packet data access seems to be broken...

and apparently they were so effective they also managed to stop me (and I pay for T-Mobile VPN unlimited) from getting a 3G connection at all even though I'm SUPPOSED to be able to.

sideout said: famewolf said: and apparently they were so effective they also managed to stop me (and I pay for T-Mobile VPN unlimited) from getting a 3G connection at all even though I'm SUPPOSED to be able to.

Really, you pay for VPN Unlimited on Prepaid?? Because the conversation is about using a 3G phone on the Sidekick prepaid plan.

Actually the title starts with "Want a cheap Aircard?" ..the sidekick plan is listed as one way to get "cheap broadband" but where you pay $30 a month for that sidekick plan I pay $19.99 a month and where they monitor the prepaid plans for excessive data usage the vpn plans are much less regulated.

Anyway, I wanted a cheap 3g phone to tether to my laptop for when traveling as my normal phone doesn't do T-Mobile 3g so it defaults to edge and although my town is supposed to be 3g enabled I was only able to get a 3g connection once and since then it's been edge speeds. None of which has anything to do with whether my plan is prepaid or not.

famewolf said: sideout said: famewolf said: and apparently they were so effective they also managed to stop me (and I pay for T-Mobile VPN unlimited) from getting a 3G connection at all even though I'm SUPPOSED to be able to.

Really, you pay for VPN Unlimited on Prepaid?? Because the conversation is about using a 3G phone on the Sidekick prepaid plan.


Actually the title starts with "Want a cheap Aircard?" ..the sidekick plan is listed as one way to get "cheap broadband" but where you pay $30 a month for that sidekick plan I pay $19.99 a month and where they monitor the prepaid plans for excessive data usage the vpn plans are much less regulated.

Anyway, I wanted a cheap 3g phone to tether to my laptop for when traveling as my normal phone doesn't do T-Mobile 3g so it defaults to edge and although my town is supposed to be 3g enabled I was only able to get a 3g connection once and since then it's been edge speeds. None of which has anything to do with whether my plan is prepaid or not.

You are right about how the title starts. But lets be thorough here. It also says Nokia 3555 + Sidekick PREPAID!!!! = $1/Day 3G Broadband Card. Secondly, you are also right that it has nothing to do with your VPN POSTPAID Plan.

famewolf said: sideout said: famewolf said: sideout said: famewolf said: and apparently they were so effective they also managed to stop me (and I pay for T-Mobile VPN unlimited) from getting a 3G connection at all even though I'm SUPPOSED to be able to.

Really, you pay for VPN Unlimited on Prepaid?? Because the conversation is about using a 3G phone on the Sidekick prepaid plan.


Actually the title starts with "Want a cheap Aircard?" ..the sidekick plan is listed as one way to get "cheap broadband" but where you pay $30 a month for that sidekick plan I pay $19.99 a month and where they monitor the prepaid plans for excessive data usage the vpn plans are much less regulated.

Anyway, I wanted a cheap 3g phone to tether to my laptop for when traveling as my normal phone doesn't do T-Mobile 3g so it defaults to edge and although my town is supposed to be 3g enabled I was only able to get a 3g connection once and since then it's been edge speeds. None of which has anything to do with whether my plan is prepaid or not.

You are right about how the title starts. But lets be thorough here. It also says Nokia 3555 + Sidekick PREPAID!!!! = $1/Day 3G Broadband Card. Secondly, you are also right that it has nothing to do with your VPN POSTPAID Plan.


You are obviously just looking for something to complain about. The sidekick plan apparently no longer works for this so grow up and move along. My previous post was entirely to comment that 3G was unavailable in my area for EVERYONE and pointed out my plan only to show that it's unavailability had nothing to do with whether or not the "security exploit" had been patched or not.

Congrats..you are the very first person to get added to my fatwallet ignore list.

I am just looking for something to complain about?? Your first and every post after is not relevant to this thread. Did you tell anyone about the city you are supposed to have 3G in but it wasn't working? Did you do anything constructive with your post? Are you just trying to raise your post count?? Thanks for the congratulations. You don't have anything worth while to contribute to fatwallet anyways so thank you for ignoring me!