How-To #5: How to Register/Activate Android Phone Without Data Plan

If you did not purchase a data plan along with your Android phone, it is possible to activate your device through the WiFi. For Google, activating means connecting the Android Phone to a Google Account. This is not an issue for newer Android versions as you can turn on Wifi during the setup process and/or skip the activation process until WiFi is accessible. However, for older Android versions, activation is required before accessing the phone. 


Most modded roms does not require activation before using the phone. Installing modded roms requires root.

Steps To Manually turn on WiFi For Older Android Versions:

Requirements:

Android USB Connection

1) Obtain root access on your device

2) On the Phone keyboard type - telnetd
3) On the Phone keyboard type - setprop persist.service.adb.enable 1
4) Open cmd and naviate to sdk tools(or platform-tools for newer versions) folder
5) In cmd type - adb shell

• Optional Step*** If you do not have a sim card; disable the notification by - in cmd type -> sqlite3 /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db "INSERT INTO system (name, value) VALUES ('device_provisioned', 1);"

6) In cmd type - am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.android.settings/.Settings

7) A screen on your phone should open up that allows the device to connect to a WiFi.