I think these questions have already been answered in various threads but I wanted to share my own personal experience anyhow.
I purchased an iPhone 2G a little over a year ago.
In July 2008, I upgraded to 3G iPhone. My 2G was deactivated.
My wife has been using the 2G iPhone for everything except a phone until her Sprint contract ran out.
Over the weekend we went to the AT&T store to activate the iPhone 2G and port my wife's number over from Sprint. The AT&T rep needed her Sprint account number and PIN code for the porting. The SIM card was changed. Everything went well but there are a couple of things that should be known:
1. The iPhone 2G needed to be activated through iTunes. When she plugged the iPhone in and we started iTunes, it asked what data plan she wanted. The only one available was the old 2G plan for $20 a month (unlimited data and 200 text messages). All of her previous settings in iTunes (music, calendar, e-mail, etc) all remained the same so nothing was lost when syncing. After a few seconds, the phone was activated on her Sprint number.
2. Both phones (Sprint and iPhone) were active on the same number until the porting process was complete. We could make calls on the iPhone but to receive calls, her Sprint phone would ring.
3. Both phones must be left turned on until a text message is received on the iPhone stating that the porting process has happened. Then, both phones are turned off and the iPhone is turned on to complete the process. Deviating from this procedure will cause issues.
4. Even though the phone was not subsidized, a new 2 year contract was required to activate the iPhone 2G.
5. The activation fee was waived. Don't know why and don't know if this will happen for everyone.
After the entire process was complete, everything worked fine. No settings and content were changed on her iPhone 2G which is great because I was concerned about her having to reload all of her music.
All in all, a pretty painless process. I was happy that the old data plan was still available to use. I thought it was stupid that she would have to pay for the 3G data plan when the phone wasn't even 3G.
Thanks for reading and hope this clarifies a few things when users wish to activate an old 2G phone.
I purchased an iPhone 2G a little over a year ago.
In July 2008, I upgraded to 3G iPhone. My 2G was deactivated.
My wife has been using the 2G iPhone for everything except a phone until her Sprint contract ran out.
Over the weekend we went to the AT&T store to activate the iPhone 2G and port my wife's number over from Sprint. The AT&T rep needed her Sprint account number and PIN code for the porting. The SIM card was changed. Everything went well but there are a couple of things that should be known:
1. The iPhone 2G needed to be activated through iTunes. When she plugged the iPhone in and we started iTunes, it asked what data plan she wanted. The only one available was the old 2G plan for $20 a month (unlimited data and 200 text messages). All of her previous settings in iTunes (music, calendar, e-mail, etc) all remained the same so nothing was lost when syncing. After a few seconds, the phone was activated on her Sprint number.
2. Both phones (Sprint and iPhone) were active on the same number until the porting process was complete. We could make calls on the iPhone but to receive calls, her Sprint phone would ring.
3. Both phones must be left turned on until a text message is received on the iPhone stating that the porting process has happened. Then, both phones are turned off and the iPhone is turned on to complete the process. Deviating from this procedure will cause issues.
4. Even though the phone was not subsidized, a new 2 year contract was required to activate the iPhone 2G.
5. The activation fee was waived. Don't know why and don't know if this will happen for everyone.
After the entire process was complete, everything worked fine. No settings and content were changed on her iPhone 2G which is great because I was concerned about her having to reload all of her music.
All in all, a pretty painless process. I was happy that the old data plan was still available to use. I thought it was stupid that she would have to pay for the 3G data plan when the phone wasn't even 3G.
Thanks for reading and hope this clarifies a few things when users wish to activate an old 2G phone.