How did i activate my phone?

[infamyx]

So i got an iPhone 3G a week ago, coming from a prepaid BlackBerry Bold, which was previous unlocked but the kid had a ton of apps on it, so i did a reset on the phone and wiped everything. Well i wasnt thinking and restored 3.1.3 on it from iTunes

Screwed myself, was using PwnageTool ipsw and everytime i went to restore via iTunes it would lock up and say the iPhone couldnt be restored (did this for roughly 6 hours) till i just gave up and put the stock 3.1.3 on it where it was asking for my SIM to activate on AT&T.

Today i slid my Prepaid AT&T SIM in there (its a new one from the AT&T store since i needed one to use my BlackBerry, and AT&T thinks they are slick locking it to your prepaid phone) and tried to activate.

Well, activation went through. I dont know how the hell it did and is why im intrigued. On my Prepaid account was the 100MB of data leftover from my Bold and im on the $1/day plan. Looked on my settings and it shows im on Baseband 5.12.01. I dont have any jailbreak tools on my screen either (no cydia/no pineapple at startup).

Anyways im just wondering how i activated it, i was under the impression if you didnt have a post paid account you couldn't activate an iPhone via iTunes, which is what i did.

 

[coltsfankana]

Me too!

I was using a prepaid Epix. I bought a 3gs (3.1.2) off some guy and blackra1ned it. I loved it. The screen quit working & since it was still under his warranty - I took it into the apple store and they gave me a new one...with 3.1.3 on it...no questions asked! I was worried when I found out it had the 3.1.3 bc there is no unlock or JB for it. For grins, I plugged it in - gave my itunes info & viola! It's working just fine! Wi-fi, Youtube, MSM, SMS, everything!

 

[big9erfan]

I was using a prepaid Epix. I bought a 3gs (3.1.2) off some guy and blackra1ned it. I loved it. The screen quit working & since it was still under his warranty - I took it into the apple store and they gave me a new one...with 3.1.3 on it...no questions asked! I was worried when I found out it had the 3.1.3 bc there is no unlock or JB for it. For grins, I plugged it in - gave my itunes info & viola! It's working just fine! Wi-fi, Youtube, MSM, SMS, everything!

That's b/c you're on AT&T or whatever carrier that sold the iPhone in your area.

 

[coltsfankana]

Update

My phone dropped service around lunch today. If I reset it, I get a signal for about 30-60 seconds. Then I get a No Service message up top. Put in another SIM, same thing. Called Apple they said it was an AT&T IEMI issue. AT&T seemed amused that I had an iPhone that was not unlocked or jailbroken that worked. They did tell me that my SIM was not locked and that while I wasn't "supposed" to use it with an iPhone, it wasn't something that they blocked. They told me to call Apple back. Apple says they gave me a defective phone and I'll get a new one tomorrow.

I'm wondering if it really is a phone issue - since it was working fine until around noon today - or if AT&T has some sort of block with the IEMI. Is your phone still running?