Buy iPhone now, connect later?? Help, please :)

[meridotz]

I am planning on giving an iPhone 3GS as a gift to my husband for his birthday in early July, but I'm worried that if I wait until then to purchase it, they will be sold out. If I purchase the phone at launch, can I wait to activate it? I know my husband will want to port his number over, so I want to wait and activate the phone with his current cell phone number on his birthday.

Does the phone have to be activated immediately in order to pay the contract price?

Would appreciate any help! What I won't appreciate it being mocked by anyone who may think this is a stupid question... so please refrain.



Thanks!

 

[Applejuiced]

Im pretty sure you can buy the iphone and then when the time comes you can plug it into itunes and port his number.
Or get him one of those iphone gift cards maybe?

 

[tayshon]

I believe you can, do that I did the same thing last year with my husband, I pre-ordered his, I was luck hims came in to the at&t store on his B-Day

 

[Switz213]

If you buy it online and get it shipped it will not be activated until you plug it into iTunes.

 

[darngooddesign]

They won't sell out then.

 

[Jman14]

Yes and no, In order to purchase the phone you must be a ATT customer and when you sign up for att they automatically give you a number. So you would have to port it when you buy that phone. Unless there is someway to port a number to an exsiting line(which there is a thread that is very recent that discuss this but I am not following it) then you would have to port his number which would make his current phone inactive.

Unless your an ATT customer already and he has a line at ATT with the number he wants then yes you can buy the phone at launch and just not plug into iTunes until the day you give it too him. Just let Apple or ATT no when you buy the phone so they dont activate it then.

 

[JusChexin]

I'm also curious as to this. I'm on month 23 of a 24 month contract with Verizon and I'd like to keep my number, but don't want to pay a $60 ETF when I have mere days left on the contract. I may wait to activate my iPhone, or I may activate it and then port my Verizon number over when the contract ends a month later. My question is, if I choose to wait to activate my iPhone for a month (which honestly, I don't know if I'll be able to do that seeing the box sit on my desk, haha), does AT&T being charging you from the day I receive the phone or from the day of activation? I already picked my plan when ordering through Apple.com but I'm assuming I'm not an official AT&T customer until I activate? Or am I -- since I bought the phone for the subsidized price? Somehow I seem to always make things more complicated then they need to be, sorry!

 

[Lou142]

Verizon to ATT

The way I have interpreted information from a different thread on this very same subject is in the following way: If you choose to receive a phone with a new number (that is, you didn't ask to have your number ported over when you went through the purchase process), then ATT will send you the phone and will issue you a new number to go with that phone. If you choose to then activate the phone and use it with the new number issued to you by ATT, you can do so and subsequently port your number over from Verizon. After doing so, ATT will replace the new number that came with the phone with your ported number, and treat your bill as if the port never happened.

I thought this wasn't possible, and one would end up with two lines - but it seems that a ported number replaces whatever number ATT issues you upon buying the phone. This information is coming from what seems to be a reliable source on the forum.

I too am thinking about porting my verizon number after receiving the phone - in order to try the service out and avoid the ETF from Verizon until I am sure I want the service.

If you search this forum for "lou142" (my ID) you will find the thread in which I am getting the information stated above. I just can't remember the actual name of the thread, sorry.