The application is $6.99 but honestly, if you have a SIP account ( Gizmo5 provides you with this ) this should open so many doors for you the price should be negligible.

Get it before AT&T complains!

iTunes Store Link
Company Website

Yes, after over a year of you being able to buy the iPhone on eBay and jailbreaking to have access to even better applications through Cydia and Installer.app, now you can actually go to a store and purchase it right then and there. You can even pay their excesive $30/mo for unlimited internet and 0 text messages. While if you had just jailbroken it you could have added the MediaNet 200 and gotten unlimited internet (yes, including 3G) and 200 text messages for $20.

I am sorry if I sound bitter, but honestly, these news are a year too late. Puerto Rico has had capacity for the iPhone for all this time and now suddenly they decide to launch and its really anticlimactic.

I disagree that this has anything to do with the T-Mobile G1 but I’ll take whatever excuse they give us. There you have it, if you enjoy giving money to companies that obviously don’t consider you a priority, AT&T will be selling the iPhone 3G in every one of their stores starting October 17th, expect there to be shortages and for service to be abysmal (like always).

It has taken AT&T well over a year to finally bring any version of the device to the island. The same prices that apply in the United States apply in the island as expected. As of right now I have not noticed any differences that will make the plan any different than just getting the phone in the United States right now and moving your AT&T number to the new phone.

Another piece of news that broke last week is that by the time the iPhone is available in Puerto Rico it will also be able to be purchased through Best Buy. This being a big change from Apple’s current sales model which is only through AT&T Retail stores and Apple Retail stores.

There you have it, even more confirmation, of the worst kept secret since Area 51. AT&T wants your money this christmas season.

I’ll update this post as soon as they make a press release.

Today’s procedure went without a hitch. I gave them my information, told them my phone number, and even told them my current billing address (in Colorado). The interesting thing about this is AT&T did not complain about my number having a Colorado billing address. But that is just a different kind of issue that I am so glad they finally got over.

So there you have it. iPhone 3G, legally activated with a Puerto Rico number. If you are visiting the United States and decide to stop by an Apple Store, you can upgrade your AT&T account with confidence before heading back to Puerto Rico. As a quick note, AT&T did confirm by email that they have plans to offer the iPhone in Puerto Rico in the near future but there are no dates set yet.

Today is July 11th. There is no iPhone in Puerto Rico. Apparently some people were upset enough with that to start sending emails to Tecnetico and he had to write a ‘editorial’ about the subject. In this editorial he (Wilton Vargas) explains that it was just rumor and speculation and that it sucks that he didn’t get it right.

Trying to show some proof that he has actually researched the subject of the iPhone in Puerto Rico he has posted a email ‘conversation’ between him and Patricia del Carmen Ramirez at America Movil (Claro) and she reinstates what I had said in my previous post about the subject.

Claro has no say about the iPhone in Puerto Rico because AT&T has the contract for ‘The United States and its Territories’. End of the story.

It is interesting that Tecnetico has chosen to update his site the way he has. Making the words ‘I am proud that our track record is still untouched’ bold Instead of highlighting his new September prediction, also from ‘sources of entire credit’.

So there you have it, Tecnetico reporting rumor and speculation leaves their track record intact, they are now rumoring and speculating that September will be the new date.

Since Wilton Vargas is a radio and television personality and apparently his ‘sources’ are about as reliable as my sources. I will now rumor and speculate the following:

• The iPhone 3G will be released in Puerto Rico at some point within the next year.
• The iPhone 3G will be on AT&T’s network
• The iPhone 3G will work just like it does in the United States (it already does >.>)

There you have it. They are the only 3 things I know for a fact. The reason why this is such a problematic issue is that AT&T is huge. There are various departments that are involved in bringing a product to Puerto Rico and therefore there is a lot of rumor, speculation and in the end delays.

AT&T representatives in Puerto Rico have been awaiting the iPhone since it’s launch last year. The iPhone has had various launch dates internally and something always goes wrong in the last minute. I am sure that Apple’s revenue sharing also came into play. There is really no competition for a phone like the iPhone in Puerto Rico. Sure all the big carriers are down there, but most people are still on the regional carriers like Centennial who’s phones are just now getting color screens (NOTE: this is obviously hyperbole, but seriously their phones suck). This means that AT&T expects to get a flood of sales when it finally launches.

I am sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but that is the state of the iPhone right now. AT&T is getting ready, it might take a while.

Thank you to everybody who emailed me about the Tecnetico story.

Update 1 (7/11/08) :

An example of a news bit is the first comment on this thread. According to ‘Obsessed iPhone 3G Researcher’ AT&T is ready to take orders (Which would be weird since they did not do this in the states) and will launch it a week from today, July 17th, 2008. If this turns out to be true, you heard it here first people . Thanks for your comments everyone!

Update 2 (7/18/08) :

As expected, there was no iPhone launch today in Puerto Rico. I just wanted to point out how these rumors get started and show that by leaving your sources unnamed you are basically taking responsability for what you say.

Update 3 (8/18/08) :

El Nuevo Dia has posted a date range ( September – December 2008)