No Commitment, Hacktivation and Unlocking

[ristoman]

I've been reading up a lot in the past month or so about the 3GS, methods to unlock it and how you can get it at a no-commitment price in the US. However, there's some things that I still don't understand so I figured I'd ask here cause you guys are awesome . So here goes...

I currently live in Spain but I'm visiting family in the US and I'd like to get a 3GS so that I might unlock it and put in a Spanish SIM with a (cheaper) voice and data plan.

I'd like to know the following:

1) Can anyone buy a 3GS with the no-commitment price or is it a promotion for current AT&T customers only? Also, from what I understand you can buy an iPhone at Apple Stores, AT&T stores and Best Buy. Do all three offer the no-commitment option? Is one place more likely to help me with that?

2) I've read that no iPhone leaves the store unactivated. Is that true? If so, how does that work without the 2-year agreement? Wouldn't you have to pick a plan anyways in order to have service? Does that mean you can quit whenever you want without any ETF? This is the part that confuses me the most... What about NO plan at all?

Long story short, I'd like to buy an iPhone in the US at the no-commitment price, then JB it, hacktivate it, unlock it and then use whatever SIM without ever going through AT&T service, nor paying anything besides the 699 + tax. Is that possible?

Thanks for any help you guys might throw at me, including success stories!

 

[tag]

Long story short, I'd like to buy an iPhone in the US at the no-commitment price, then JB it, hacktivate it, unlock it and then use whatever SIM without ever going through AT&T service, nor paying anything besides the 699 + tax. Is that possible?

Yes this is quite possible and nearly exactly what I did, though I have heard some stories that some stores tell people you can't buy the 3GS without a contract with AT&T. From my experience your best bet would be to try to get one through an Apple store.

My not so quick story...

About a week after the 3GS came out I wanted one, so I went to the Apple store I was near (I was on holiday) and asked to buy a 3GS. I just said I wanted to buy one off contract for the full price and use it on T-Mobile instead. The two guys working there just looked at each other real quickly and after a bit of talking the one said, "well if you're paying full price I don't see why not" and went and rang me up the iPhone.

No activation or anything happened, they just handed me the phone in the sealed box and I went on my merry way. When I got home I played with it for a few days, though still couldn't use it on T-Mobile yet as this was still a few days before the jailbreak was released.

The nice thing is inside the 3GS came an AT&T sim card, so when I hooked it up to iTunes, it activated even though I didn't have an account with AT&T (Not really sure why that worked). A few days later the jailbreak and unlock came out and I have been using my 3GS ever since, no hacktivating even required so push works great, (though obviously the jailbreak and unlock were required for the T-Mobile service).