Activation question

[EmpiresCrumble]

Hey all, I'm a current AT&T customer and I'm about to buy my first iPhone in the next few days. I have a quick question regarding activation.

I noticed that in iLiberty+ there's the option to have the program activate the phone for you. Is there any difference between using the program to activate my iPhone, and doing it the "right" way through iTunes? Will activating my iPhone through iLiberty+ make it so that I won't have to sign a 2-year contract with AT&T, because I'd like to avoid that if I can.

In addition, I already have the unlimited data plan on AT&T. Will I have to switch to an iPhone specific data plan, or can I just stick with my current plan? For the same price as what they're offering now, my current plan gets me unlimited text messages (instead of the 200 they currently offer), so I'd like to avoid switching data plans if I could.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me! This place seems to be the one place that answers most questions I've had about the iPhone, so I feel confident I'll get an answer!

[ronzo]

Yes, activating through iliberty bypasses the Itunes activation, once the phone is unlocked and activated, you can take your present SIM card and put it i the iphone and you'll be on the same plan you are now using.

[EmpiresCrumble]

Thanks for answering my question! So, would I have to unlock my iPhone to avoid the 2-year contract and more expensive data plan? Just want to be clear, because I'd rather not unlock if I don't have to, I'm trying to avoid unlocking it, though I most likely will jailbreak it.

[ronzo]

Since you are already using AT&T service, you probably won't have to unlock it, but you would have to activate it through iLiberty to be able to use your present SIM card and bypass the activation process through Itunes.
I'm about 99% sure of that but you could always stick your present Sim in the iphone just for giggles to see what happens but I'd bet you a dollar it wouldn't work.

[EmpiresCrumble]

And bypassing the activation process through iTunes would make it so that I'm not signing a 2-year contract with AT&T, correct?

Would I still be able to restore firmware through iTunes if I don't use iTunes to activate my iPhone?

Also, would I stick my current SIM card in the iPhone before I go about activating and jailbreaking my iPhone through iLiberty+? Would activating through iLiberty+ cause me and my phone any other problems in the long term, at least problems you might be aware of?

Thanks for being so helpful, everyone!

edit: and by everyone, I mean ronzo!

[ronzo]

1. correct
2.yes
3. Don't know if it matters, I used iLiberty on mine right out of the box and haven't had a single problem with mine. But I can't say this enough...."do your homework, make notes, study, so that you are quite confident before you do anything. I like to recommend using Youtube. You can find numerous visual aids there that will be a great help. Good Luck

[EmpiresCrumble]

Thanks, you've been really helpful! Yeah, I'm trying to do as much homework as I can. I think I've been spending more time on this than on studying for finals, haha! I want to get my money's worth out of this thing!

::Mike