HOW TO: iphone 101, Activate an iPhone

So your iPhone died and was restored and needs to be activated? Follow these simple steps to get back into business:

You may activate the phone at a AT&T store however the staff there does the same thing you can do at home which is connect the phone to iTunes and do it online.
Apple store employees also simply use iTunes to activate the phone.

How to activate iPhone:

1. Download the latest version of iTunes from http://www.apple.com/iTunes
install it

2. Connect your iPhone to the computer. After a few minutes any drivers needed are installed on your computer (windows version only not mac) and the phone is recognized

3. The iPhone will come up in the iTunes window and is automatically activated.

4. You are asked if you want to set the phone up as new or restore a backup

from here on just follow prompts.
If you do nit have an active Internet connection this does not work and you will need to bring the phone in to an stt or apple store.
Do not go to an att retailer but an actual corporate store. They deal with customer service type issues.