Do I have to activate iPhone to sell it to my friend?

Greetings,

I just bought a new 3GS for my friend who wants to use it on Verizon. I jailbroke the phone, and I was going to unlock it. But the instructions at iClarified - iPhone - How to Unlock the iPhone 3GS Using PurpleSn0w say that it must be activated with AT&T first?

I have a Blackberry and don't really want to use the iPhone. How can I just jailbreak, then unlock this phone and let him use it? Do I have to activate it under my account and then just cancel the data plan?

And how the heck are all these people on eBay selling unlocked phones? I told him he better watch out or I will sell the phone on eBay for lots of money instead of selling it to him for what I paid for it! :)

Thanks everyone.

You just need to activated with AT&T if you need PUSH notifications to work. Otherwise you can keep your unoficial SIM and and let redsn0w hactivate the iPhone.

Beware even if you unlock the phone won't work in Verizon. Verizom doesn't use GSM techonlogy, uses CDMA and ultrasn0w will not have any effect on it.

Well then in that case I would like to just sell it on eBay. How would that work? Should I sell the phone un-activated? Can I unlock the phone if it is un-activated?

I can get a lot of money for it if I unlock and jailbreak it. If I activate it first to my SIM in the AT&T store, how can I sell it on eBay? Will that person just be able to put their ATT/T-MOBILE/whatever SIM card in?

I guess I'm confused as to what activation does. When I put my current working SIM card in this iPhone, it had no service. I heard you have to activate the iPhone in store (I got this one through ATT's website).

Help please?

Ideally you need to sell the set after clean restore. Don’t activate it.
(Please inform buyer that through whom you bought the set – Sell in same country)
When the buyer switches on the Iphone it should direct him for activation.

You can make him pleased by selling it unlocked one but I personally feel you should not charge(as all the tools are available for free).

On Jail breaking / unlocking
IF you activate it there are chances that you can get the push notification
IF you don’t have official just put the other SIM and just run readsn0w which will hactivate Iphone ( hactivation means bypassing activation).
Then you install ultrasn0w which will make the Iphone to work under any carrier.

Thanks for the response gkscit,

I'm still unclear on one thing, though. If I do sell the phone jailbroken and unlocked, AND unactivated, what happens when the buyer tries to activate the unlocked/jailbroken phone? Don't they have to go into an AT&T store? Won't that be a problem if they show up to an AT&T store with an unlocked phone? I thought you had to activate in person?

Correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks!

NadCraker it is impossible to have a jailbroken and unactivated iPhone. Let me explain you why.

Let's take OS 3.0 as an example. You just bought an brand new iPhone 3G and you turn it on. A screen will appear on the iPhone stating you have to connect the phone into iTunes and that you can only do emergency calls.
Once you do that it will check if you have an official carrier SIM. If the response is true than it'll activate the iPhone and you'll get full use of it.

The other option you have, instead of connecting the brand new iPhone with iTunes is to run the program to do the jailbrake (in this case redsn0w).

redsn0w will perform its magic and it will detect that you don't have your phone activated and so it will do it for you (when this process is done by the jailbraker program is called Hactivation).
Then you will have full access of the iPhone.

As you can see it's impossible to even get to the home screen of the iPhone without a activation or Hactivation.

If you still have any doubts post it and we'll try to help you.

Thanks for the quick responses guys. This is my first iPhone and first attempts at jailbreaking. I was really into Xbox 1 modding a few years ago, and this has a similar learning curve, just thankfully no soldering! :)

Here is how my experience went:

1. I unboxed the new 3GS, got the 'plug into iTunes' screen
2. I plugged it in, restored to 3.0 firmware (per instructions on iClarified)
3. I jailbroke with redsn0w .8
4. This got me to the home screen BUT with no AT&T service
5. I put in a working AT&T SIM, STILL no service
6. I restored back to 3.0 firmware (non-jailbroke) and took it into AT&T store
7. They activated it and put in my SIM from my Blackberry (I now had service)
8. I took it home and jailbroke with redsn0w .8 and unlocked with ultrasn0w

Am I now free to sell this bad boy on eBay? (Still undecided, this is a cool phone!) What problems will the buyer face, if any? What exactly are push notifications, and will they have a problem getting them (with AT&T or any other carrier)?

Thanks again guys, big help.

In order to sell it you should restore to 3.0.1 and leave the iPhone that way. no activation, no jailbraking, nothing. But this is just my opinion.

But if you really want to seel the iPhone as it is erase your personal info from it and you're ready to sell it (don't it... it's so much cooler then the blackberry :) ).

But remember that you do have the iPhone activated with your SIM, so your buyer may turn so start receiving notifications that were for you.

Hmmm. I think that is where my ultimate confusion lies. What exactly are push notifications? Why would they go to that phone even after the buyer puts their SIM into it?

I thought the SIM card determined where calls/texts went?

I guess I just don't know exactly what push notifications are. I understand the differences between push and pull technology, but I don't see why the buyer of my phone would get notifications meant for me, since he would be using his SIM card, not mine.

SMS's and calls always go to the device where the SIM, but that's not what we are talking about.

Maybe THIS can help you understand what PUSH notifications really is.