AT&T along with Apple are working to prevent the exploitation of the iPhone 3G by opportunists who wouldn’t mind selling on unlocked iPhones for use on other networks to turn a buck or two for themselves, and don’t be surprised if it should happen as the Apple iPhone 3G becomes more and more popular, there will be loads of people wanting to make cash off the resell.

Apple and AT&T will of course be extremely strict over iPhone 3G activation hoping to avoid such problems in the future. Their current answer is if you purchase an Apple iPhone 3G at a subsidised price you will receive 30 days to activate said handset in an AT&T or Apple store.

Failure to activate in an Apple or AT&T store within the said 30 days and your credit card will be billed for the subsidy itself. This should also happen for online purchases of course, and there will still be the limit of three iPhone 3G’s per person.

Apple’s UK press release states that in the UK, iPhone customers will be able to purchase an iPhone 3G online; the release actually said: “iPhone 3G will be available in the UK through O2 and Carphone Warehouse. iPhone 3G will also be sold online through O2 and Carphone Warehouse.”

I guess we will just have to wait and see if online purchases of the Apple iPhone 3G will become available elsewhere other than the UK after July 11th.

Source — iphoneatlas via mobilewhack