apple news/media reports
07/16/2007, 11:40pm, EDT
Monday, July 16th
iPhone activation without 2-year agreement
Brian Mitchell of Ecoustics has posted instructions for bypassing AT&T's 2-year activation agreement for the iPhone and instead use pre-paid service. Essentially, in order to get to the pre-paid activation screens in the iTunes setup you have to fail the credit check. This can be accomplished by entering 999-99-9999 as your social security number. However, you do have to enter your real address and credit card number and click a button that says it is agreeing to the two-year activation terms from AT&T and select a higher rate plan before the credit check window appears. The author pf the instructions states "It's shameful the pre-paid activation process is not easier to locate. Apple probably could have easily made the pre-paid option more visible in the setup screens, but I suspect AT&T Wireless prevented it or changed their mind too late. Nonetheless a simple statement by either company about the pre-paid alternative would be nice."
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ATT has caught on to this and when you do it, it stops the iTunes sign-on with a message saying that ATT needs more time. 4 hours later you get a 15 digit code and an ATT phone number to call. At which point you'll have to fess up with your real SS# because they can see your attempt to use an invalid SS#.
I'm sure AT&T will gladly open a pay-as-you-go plan for a SSN-less person; unfortunately, I'm sure their front line staff has no clue this is even possible.