Is there any way to activate an iphone without buying a plan?

I want to buy an iphone and unlock it with the free unlock software, but I don’t want to have to buy a plan just to avoid buying a plan…

does anyone know if there’s a way around this?

has anyone I know successfully performed a software unlock of their iphone?

[Update: i found ways to activate the phone. Now I’m just a little confused about the process.

As best I can tell, I’ll need to:

1. Buy an iPhone
2. Download the activate software
3. Use it to Jailbreak my iPhone
4. Use it to perform the activation
5. Download the Unlock GUI software
6. Copy it over to the iPhone
7. Run the Unlock program
8. Un-Jailbreak my iPhone

and then I’m good to go? I feel like I’m missing some of the technical steps here. For example, none of the “unlock your iphone” tutorials say that you have to jailbreak your iPhone, but jailbreaking it (i think) means being able to write to it.

So should I un-jailbreak after activating it? Probably. Its in those directions. Guh. I wish someone would write a tutorial that is unmistakeably easy.

]

[[ If you’ve software unlocked your iPhone, please ping me: j at jason-preston.com. I’d love to have some guidance on the process! ]]