Check with the apple store. From what I have read they only sell phones for activation with a national carrier: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon. However, that does not include MVNO's (Mobile Virtual Network Operator). MVNO's are the pre-paid brands that operate on the same network as one or more of the national carriers. As a MVNO they are activated on a specific SIM for that company and allows use on the national operator's network, but use is billed to an account tied to the MVNO. Usually the MVNO's are tied to just one operator. But some are tied to multiple national operators depending on the area of the country you are attempting to use the phone. Here are examples of MVNO's: EG: Virgin Mobile, Boost, Cricket, Metro (aka Metro PCS), Simple Mobile, Mint. Even national carriers have subsidiaries that are MVNO's (still requiring special SIM cards which Apple doesn't have.) It's a real pain but it is what it is. (I used to work for Metro PCS who runs on T-Mobile's network and would have people buy a phone from T-Mobile or Apple and want to activate it on Metro before their 2 year contract was completed. The other ploy was telling the other carrier the phone was stolen and trying to activate it on our network which would allow them to activate it and in a few days the phone would brick because it was reported stolen.
