I recently bought a used iPhone 4 from my friend for use on the Net10 (a.k.a Tracfone or StraightTalk) network. Net10 piggybacks as a MVNO carrier on the AT&T or T-mobile networks.

Ever since I got the phone, data and MMS do not work on Net10 because I have not been able to update and save the APN settings that Net10 instructs you to use:

Net10 (and many other MVNO carriers) will tell you to adjust your APN settings in order to use data.

To adjust APN settings in iOS you to go to “Settings > General > Cellular > Cellular Data”.

Unfortunately, the crucial menu for “Cellular data” does not appear in iOS 6, depending on the type of SIM you have in your iPhone. AT&T flavored SIM cards provided by Net10 do NOT have the setting. Many people report being able to do a SIM swap method whereby they use a t-mobile SIM card to get to the “cellular data” setting and then swapping in their Net10 SIM card. Yes I can confirm that you will be able to see the menu and alter the APN settings.

However, once I exit that “Ceullular Data” menu my APN settings do not get saved. I know this because I get an error message from Safari that I am not subscribed to a cellular data network.