i have an iPhone 3G model# MB499LL
which is clearly an AT&T phone
but get this .. this iphone was bought from Saudi Arabian Carrier mobily
and guess what .. it activates on mobily but does not work with AT&T cards
mobily phones should have MBxxxAB and they are supposed to be factory unlocked according to apple activation page

so whats the deal here?
could it be possible that the carrier has done something to the phone and switched the activation from AT&T to mobily? but if they can do so the woldve done it on thier own devices

i have no idea whats the deal here.

btw once i activate it with mobily ... it works and gets a signal ... if i remove the sim card ... it still activated ... but once i put it in a diffrent sim card .. it deactivates and goes back to the orginal screen

i just dont get how can they modify an AT&T iphone to make it do what they want.

any ideas?

wow

how did u do this ???

i didnt do it
its just like this
i am trying to figure it out

They bought usa model from the states (black market) for cheap and sell it to you.
Restore it and it should work with your at&t sims

dude we are talking about a legal iphone 3G carrier
this is not the case because this one only activates on mobily sim cards
even after restore
AT&T sims or any sim card wont work