The current iPhone is a GSM device. TMobile is the only other nationwide GSM carrier in the US, so there are a lot of people holding out hope that the iPhone will work with their TMobile account using their TMobile SIM.
The results aren’t promising, but they aren’t completely discouraging either. ZDNet did the experiement as part of an iPhone review. The result? The phone functions didn’t work, but they could still use the device on WiFi to access the internet, and the iPod functionality still worked.
Over on CrunchGear they document a similar experiment using an unactivated SIM with the same result. It seems they were following the lead of TUAW.
So, it’s pretty decisive. You can use the iPhone as a combination of a slick new iPod + internet communicator if you want, but there is still the sticky problem of your AT&T contract, at least until people figure out how to activate the phone without an AT&T account.
My first question is what will this cost me for the internet once i convert my iphone to my tmobile account, assuming it works?