iPhone 3g 16g 3.1.3 Emergency Call Stuck

[Sidawi]

Hello all, and thanks in advance for any help I receive on this website. I know next to nothing about jailbreaking and unlocking iPhones, however I can hold my own with computers.

I have AT&T and do not plan on paying for the iPhone plan. I am currently on 3.1.3 firmware.

I just bought this iPhone 3g 16g from a guy on craigslist. It had cydia and a bunch of bible apps, and seemed to be working fine. A few hours later when I got home I put my SIM in it and tried to make a call. Sure enough it did a "Call ended-Call Failed" thing multiple times. I tried doing a few things in the settings that I found on the internet like changing your home town location but that didn't work. I know nothing about iPhones so I decided to restore it to default settings using iTunes. Sure enough, right after I did that my phone says that I am stuck in emergency call mode. When I plug it in to my iTunes it says that I need to activate it. Obviously I don't want to activate it because I don't want to pay for internet. Am I screwed?

My goal is to get past this emergency lock, and later on jail break it. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks a ton!

[jkmonkey]

The phone has to be activated with a sim from an offcial carrier. If your in the us then that would be AT&T. It has to be a post paid account sim, a pay as you go won't do it. As far as using the iPhone without paying for the iPhone data plan, that won't happen. If you get the phone working the first time you make a call or text, AT&T will know it's an iPhone and automaticly change your plan.

[i.Annie]

I just read somewhere that even with an AT&T plan, if it isnt an iphone plan you havr to unlock the phone.

[neodude237]

edit: scratch that, didn't read it right

use redsn0w to jailbreak and hacktivate

[jkmonkey]

But the whole point is that he wants to use it on AT&T without paying for the iPhone data plan, and that just won't happen. So even if he got the phone hacktivated that still doesn't accomplish what he wants.