att/itunes block restore of 2007 iphone??

[ipadbrowser]

Ordered Iphone 4s on Fri. morn. Lost iphone 3GS on Fri. afternoon. I've been using 2007 iphone for touch features. Thought I would reactivate service for a week on the 2007 phone. Went to ATT, they couldn't get past the first couple of itunes screens and told me to go to the apple store. Spent 3 hours at the apple store. We still could not get past a few of the itunes screens to reactivate the cell service on the 2007. In the process, one of the guys reset the 2007 iphone to factory settings. Now the 2007 iphone is stuck at the splash screen with the USB cable and the itunes logo. Itunes won't recognize the phone. The system recovery (power off and hold home while plugging in itunes) doesn't work. Bought a go phone and had ATT put in a SIM card. Here's the frustrating part. The ATT guy said that about 8 months ago, apple/att decided to stop allowing the activation of the 2007 iphone. He said people were trying to reactivate the 2007 to grandfather into the unlimited plan. No one at apple has confirmed this. I could care less about the unlimited plan. If this is true, it's a real shame this hasn't been communicated to apple stores. If they knew they wouldn't have attempted to activate or restore the original iphone. Because the 2007 itunes iphone process was linked with att plan and activation, if apple/att stopped activation, they've also prevented a means by which someone can restore a back up (for touch features) on a phone that has been restored to factory default. Am I stuck with a dead paperweight? I can't see any means of bypassing the itunes screen. Can I jailbreak a 2007 iphone from factory reset?