Joe,
Netdog was joking about your use of "Wives" rather than 1 wife. Quite funny if you ask me!
Anyway back to your problem. If the handset is using an AT&T sim and is locked, then all you can do is wait for the AT&T servers to comeback on line.
Otherwise it's down the Jailbreaking and activation route. A copy of Independence 1.2.3 will do the trick nicely.