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How do I activate a 1st Gen with no Contract??

Loonytik

Loonytik

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 2, 2008
526
0
I see all these Ebay listings that state "No Contract" but, when you activate the 1st Gen iphone through itunes it asks you to sign up for a new 2 year agreement.

Is there a way around signing up for the contract and getting the $20 data plan on the iphone?
 
Loonytik said:
I see all these Ebay listings that state "No Contract" but, when you activate the 1st Gen iphone through itunes it asks you to sign up for a new 2 year agreement.

Is there a way around signing up for the contract and getting the $20 data plan on the iphone?
Click to expand...

Do you only want to use it as a glorified iPod touch? Or do you actually want to use it as a phone?
 
I plan on using it with AT&T because T-Mobile has horrible coverage in my area. I just dont want to be locked into contract with AT&T.

Options?
 
I believe if you swap the sim with one from another AT&T phone which is already active you will get around it.
 
Tallest Skil said:
You... don't have to after you do that. You can do whatever you want when you activate, jailbreak, and unlock.
Click to expand...

AT&T is the only viable option in my area other than Verizon (which I am a customer of right now). All other providers have terrible service. So, back to my original question...again.

How do I activate an iphone I buy off of Ebay with AT&T with no contract?
 
Loonytik said:
AT&T is the only viable option in my area other than Verizon (which I am a customer of right now). All other providers have terrible service. So, back to my original question...again.

How do I activate an iphone I buy off of Ebay with AT&T with no contract?
Click to expand...

Fail the credit check and get on a GoPhone plan.
 
By activating with AT&T you will be required to contract for AT&T service. Even if you went into a local store or called customer care. At this time AT&T doesn't offer a pay as you go plan (GoPhone) with the iPhone. A two year contract is required.
 
I am in a similar situation and was wrongly under the impression that the iPhone would behave like any other locked phone ie. put in another AT&T sim and you're good to go but it doesn't work like that! Although one CSR told my GF (she is getting my 1st gen as I got a 3G) told her that she just needed the IMEI and her SIM then they could activate without a contract but I think that person didn't know what they were talking about as calls back to do that have been complete failures.

What I plan to do for her is just unlock it using the Pwnage Tool so she can just keep using her existing plan (with more data added), it won't be ideal as Visual Voicemail won't work and she won't be able to take advantage of the iPhone data plan but hey at least the phone will be worlds better than her ancient Samsung flip phone that she has now!
 
This thread is starting to shed some light on questions I had.

I originally bought an iPhone (first gen) and never activated, went right to the jailbreak route as I already had a Blackjack and was paying for a laptop connect plan in order to tether (before tethering plans came out). I knew I would be fine with data usage, so everything was fine. I just didn't want to be locked into a 2 year contract knowing 3G was coming and not knowing what their upgrade policy would really be.

Anyway, so as it turns out, the 3G iPhone now is going to be much more desirable than the first gen iPhone I believe. With the first gen iPhone, the new owner will always have to activate and sign up for a new 2 year contract. In 10 years, even if the phone was past down to 5 people and they all activated and had the phone for 2 years each with a 'new' 2 year contract, the 6th person will still have to sign up for a new 2 year contract on a 10 year old phone in order to legitimately use it.

With the iPhone 3G, it's activated once. You can take any AT&T SIM and put it in the phone and not have to sign up for a new 2 year contract and still be able to legitimately use it with an iPhone plan by calling AT&T and just turning that plan on for your phone line.

So the only way to get an old iPhone and use it without signing up for a new 2 year contract is to hack it. The new iPhone doesn't require you to sign a new contract for each new user.

I think this is the case. Anyone else know if this is true?
 
tobyg said:
This thread is starting to shed some light on questions I had.

I originally bought an iPhone (first gen) and never activated, went right to the jailbreak route as I already had a Blackjack and was paying for a laptop connect plan in order to tether (before tethering plans came out). I knew I would be fine with data usage, so everything was fine. I just didn't want to be locked into a 2 year contract knowing 3G was coming and not knowing what their upgrade policy would really be.

Anyway, so as it turns out, the 3G iPhone now is going to be much more desirable than the first gen iPhone I believe. With the first gen iPhone, the new owner will always have to activate and sign up for a new 2 year contract. In 10 years, even if the phone was past down to 5 people and they all activated and had the phone for 2 years each with a 'new' 2 year contract, the 6th person will still have to sign up for a new 2 year contract on a 10 year old phone in order to legitimately use it.

With the iPhone 3G, it's activated once. You can take any AT&T SIM and put it in the phone and not have to sign up for a new 2 year contract and still be able to legitimately use it with an iPhone plan by calling AT&T and just turning that plan on for your phone line.

So the only way to get an old iPhone and use it without signing up for a new 2 year contract is to hack it. The new iPhone doesn't require you to sign a new contract for each new user.

I think this is the case. Anyone else know if this is true?
Click to expand...


By this logic I could purchase a 3G iphone from Ebay, pop in a AT&T sim and be good to go with no contract.
 
Jailbreak & Unlock it.. then put your SIM in.

For the data plan.. I'm not sure how you would add that onto your AT&T account b/c if they see you're adding the iPhone data plan it's obvious you have an iPhone. I'm not sure if regular unlimited data would work.
 
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