So I was caught up into the iPhone trap on the sunny day of August 27, 2007 for the amount of $599.00 USD at the at&t store at Nassau Park Blvd in Princeton, New Jersey.

I asked what I thought was the necessary question: “Is it possible to activate an iPhone without a Social Security Number and with no credit history in the US?” The ignorant AT&T bureaucrat replied to me: “Yes, of course”. “Are you sure?”. And then he convinced me with the following argument: “In the remote case that you would fail the SSN and credit tests, then don’t worry, you could always sign-up your iPhone with a prepaid Go-phone plan which is a little bit more expensive, but it can do the trick. This option will be shown to you during the iTunes activation process. And you will still have international roaming and blah-blah-blah”

And this is how the story begins. Went home, connected the blessed iPhone, went automatically into iTunes and, as expected, I failed the SSN test –I should have saved the screen shots, but I just couldn’t tell how far the story would go: I repent!– The SSN number proved to be a minor problem, since I found that iTunes would accept “999-99-9999″ as valid. But the biggest of all problems was that my credit card did not have a billing address in the US and this was worse than failing the SSN test. And I thought that the answer was as easy as the Go-phone pre-paid alternative; but it never appeared as an option.

So I called at&t customer service and asked the necessary question: “I am a Mexican national, bought an iPhone, couldn’t activate it as I was told in the store and want to know my options”. I know, I know: This is the time when you would ask: “Why you didn’t try to unblock the thing (easy as install the software to crack it) and add whatever plan with any mobile operator you want into your iPhone”. But no, I decided to go all the way until the end. Small part because I wanted to do the right thing (to get full legal functionality and support) and big part out of curiosity (morbous!), because I wanted to prove the Apple exclusive alliance with at&t wrong.

And the at&t operator –How old fashioned that concept sounds for an iPhone related matter?– told me, what?, that I should go back to the store, get a Go-phone pre-paid number (all together with a new bright SIM chip that the iPhone would not accept) and then try number portability with iTunes. Operator thought, but wasn’t sure, that I should be able to get the pre-paid plan options in iTunes this way. But of course it didn’t work. So I buried my iPhone in its box casket inside my cabinet for a month or so until I returned back from a business trip.

I was back in cold November from my trip and lots of things had changed in addition to the weather. I now had a Social Security Number –the “Open Sesame” key to unlock basic rights in the US–, and a debit card with a billing address in the US. Oh … and also the iPhone dropped its price by $200! The good thing is that early iPhone owners were able to claim back $100 in the fashion of Apple store credit. What a perfect time to activate back to life my iPhone and claim my money back in the shape of music!

Went through all the iTunes activation process again: a) Want number portability? No; b) What’s the plan that you want? I chose the 900 minutes plan because there was no pre-paid available; c) Credit card, SSN and billing address? Went through all this pain again and fill-it-all-out legally. And guess what? It was not possible to activate the damn iPhone because I now needed a pre-approved credit code from an accredited at&t store. Nice!

My determination was now absurd but absolute: I will go until the end and then measure the pain just to tell this stupid anecdote. So I went to an at&t store in Manhattan, just because I was there and why not? … And to give me a pre-approved credit code, a silly little string of 13 numbers, at&t kindly asked me to pay the reasonable amount of $500USD… and they gladly accepted my Mexican Amex credit card with not a single little objection. Beautiful! Got my receipt and went back home to resuscitate my dead iPhone. And guess what?

It happens that my pre-approved credit number from the at&t store located in New York was not valid and that I needed to speak (I so much wanted to!) with an at&t customer service operator again. And it took me long to understand that the reason why the pre-approved credit activation code was not valid was because I bought my iPhone in Princeton and I got the code in Manhattan, and these are different telephone area codes; so iTunes didn’t know how to assign a number to my iPhone and neither the at&t operator (but of course!). So the operator told me to go to the at&t store in Princeton and claim a new pre-approved credit code.

It was until December 2, after 96 days, 3 trips to the at&t store, countless conversations with at&t operators, a valid SSN, a billing address in the USD and $1,099.00 USD plus a 2 year contractual commitment with at&t that I was able to enjoy the beauty of an iPhone.

But the story isn’t over yet. (Sorry). It happens that I travel most of the time and that I really need international features in my phone: roaming, long distance, data roaming, etc. But… at&t doesn’t want to give me those features yet. They told me perhaps after 90 days of continued service. So here we go until March 2008!

And the cherry in the pie:

I just keep on thinking about the still current words from Theodore Veil, president of at&t at the beginning of the last century: “one policy, one system, universal service”. This phrase had enough punch to convince Woodrow Wilson that the telephone system would spread more efficiently if developed under an at&t monopoly. (Believe it or not, there is a good book from Milton Mueller that provides an interesting interpretation of Veil’s doctrine). Anyway, this is the stupid, expensive and tragic story of a soulless iPhone and his (yet) unconnected owner.