By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 05:00 PM EST

Original iPhone owners upgrading to an iPhone 3G can hand-down their old iPhone to a family member or friend with a few simple steps, the most complex of which entails a trek down to a local AT&T retail store to pick up a fresh SIM card.

Giving your old iPhone to a family member or friend

• You can hand down your old iPhone to someone else while activating your new iPhone 3G at an Apple or AT&T store, or anytime thereafter.


• Since your original iPhone's phone number is going to be used on your new iPhone 3G, the person receiving the original iPhone will need a new SIM card, which you can get by stopping by an AT&T retail store.


• You can add a new line or transfer an existing line to the original iPhone from home using iTunes. If you need help adding a new line, you can always walk into an AT&T store and see an associate.


• Once you've obtained a new SIM card for the original iPhone, the original iPhone can be activated through iTunes like you originally activated it.


• If the original iPhone is instead activated with its new SIM card in an AT&T store, you'll want to later connect it to iTunes and select "existing customer" to complete the process, even if you're new to AT&T.


• Users who'll be porting a non-AT&T phone number for use with an original iPhone can review the required number porting information covered in one of AT&T's earlier video guides.


• If AT&T tells you your out-of-area mobile number is ineligible for porting, try the steps taken by AppleInsider's Publisher last June when he successfully ported his 'ineligible' mobile number to AT&T and iPhone.

A video guide covering the hand-down process follows. AT&T is also offering a PDF file containing similar information and instructions on how to remove and replace an iPhone's SIM card.