Help with unlocking and activating new iPhone

[urfriend_1]

Hi

I am planning to buy a new iPhone within a week. I would like to know what firmware are they selling currently. I see different guides for different firmware unlocks so not sure which one to use.
Besides, I am already using ATT sim card on another phone but still interested in unlocking/activating due to the following reasons:
1. My plan is older one and ATT wants me to get a new plan with signing new 2 year contract by paying activation fee before I can continue to use my phone # in iPhone. i.e. I cannot simply slide the existing ATT sim card into new ipHone. I really hate that.
2. ATT does not allow me to enjoy the big employers discount that I am currently having on my plan. They can offer that to me otherwise but not with iPhone specifically becase apple has prohibited them from doing that. This is ridiculous.
3. I want to have an option of not getting the data plan whenever required since I am always getting WI-FI spots in the range. ATT mandates me to buy data plan for iPhone to work.

I guess I will solve all the above problems by unlocking it and using my existing SIM besides I'll get to use another SIM during international travel. Can someone confirm?

thanx

[FireFish]

Hi

I am planning to buy a new iPhone within a week. I would like to know what firmware are they selling currently. I see different guides for different firmware unlocks so not sure which one to use.
Besides, I am already using ATT sim card on another phone but still interested in unlocking/activating due to the following reasons:
1. My plan is older one and ATT wants me to get a new plan with signing new 2 year contract by paying activation fee before I can continue to use my phone # in iPhone. i.e. I cannot simply slide the existing ATT sim card into new ipHone. I really hate that.
2. ATT does not allow me to enjoy the big employers discount that I am currently having on my plan. They can offer that to me otherwise but not with iPhone specifically becase apple has prohibited them from doing that. This is ridiculous.
3. I want to have an option of not getting the data plan whenever required since I am always getting WI-FI spots in the range. ATT mandates me to buy data plan for iPhone to work.

I guess I will solve all the above problems by unlocking it and using my existing SIM besides I'll get to use another SIM during international travel. Can someone confirm?

thanx

1) As of this post, new iPhones from AT&T or Apple are coming with 1.1.4, which is fine.

2) Activation Rules with Hacking for AT&T:
A) You could use the iPhone without data plan. Download PWNAGE 1.1 & PWN your iPhone. You'd just check the option for activation.
B) BIG PRECAUTION: with option A, you WON'T get Visual Voicemail, + data, etc. The ONLY WAY to get these with AT&T & hack your phone is to activate it normally through iTunes, which in the process, adds a data plan to your account, THEN use PWNAGE to pwn your iPhone & use PWNAGE 1.1 to create a Custom Firmware IPSW (firmware file for iPhone) version 1.1.4 & restore to it from within iTunes. PWNAGE gives you many options when it's making your custom firmware installer, including 'Unlock Phone', BootNeuter, etc. They should all be fine for AT&T users as long as you activated your new iPhone & properly migrated your AT&T account to an iPhone account with a data plan. I know it hurts, I Have a 17% discount on my monthly bill for me & my wife which we lost when we both got iPhones.

But that's Apple.

[urfriend_1]

Thanks for the reply firefish. I don't care of the visual voice mail. In that case, are you saying that I can keep my existing ATT plan without any changes and still be able to unlock and activate the iphone and then use it with ATT sim card?

I talked to the ATT rep couple of days before. He told me that they won't know what PDA I am using, however he mentioned that iphone requires a special kind of SIM. SO even if I would have received an unlocked iphone from eBay, my existing SIM is not slidable into iPhone.
IS that true?

[FireFish]

Thanks for the reply firefish. I don't care of the visual voice mail. In that case, are you saying that I can keep my existing ATT plan without any changes and still be able to unlock and activate the iphone and then use it with ATT sim card?

I talked to the ATT rep couple of days before. He told me that they won't know what PDA I am using, however he mentioned that iphone requires a special kind of SIM. SO even if I would have received an unlocked iphone from eBay, my existing SIM is not slidable into iPhone.
IS that true?

There are YouTube videos out there I've seen which show how to cut the SIM if that's the case. It's just cutting off a corner.

Personally, I've never experienced that issue. I pay the extra few bucks a month for internet. I couldn't live without Visual Voicemail. That's one of the greatest reasons I got it to begin with :-)

AT&T won't tell you it's possible, but being that I never did it, I can't either. All I can say from my knowledge of the firmware and hacking it is that there isn't a reason that it shouldn't work, considering that if you PWN it, you can even have it activate itself through an unlock route.

[urfriend_1]

Great! thanx

[FireFish]

Great! thanx

Did it work??

If you didn't buy an iPhone yet, wait for the 3G.
I think it's gonna come out a lot sooner than everyone is expecting it.

I am starting to have reason to believe that the June 9 rumor for 3G was planted by Apple & they may release it much earlier to grab everyone's impulsiveness.

[macro]

Please help NOOB !
I bought an iPhone from the ATT store in the US. I am trying to unlock using Pwnage tool 1.1 but having difficulty. Its OOB. Itunes starts up and is trying to activate me with ATT and I am trying to avoid that but Pwnage stops after the close itunes part. Please tell me if I have to remove the sim card or is there something I am doing wrong in the initial sequence? Help