Development on an unlocked phone without having a service from mobile company

I am currently locked with a black berry plan but want to start development on Windows Phone 7. Obviously I can test my app with emulators but other option is to buy an unlocked phone. My question is that if I buy an unlocked phone and don't get any service from a mobile phone company, will I be able to connect to my WiFi and test things like location based feature of my program ( like list of local resturants)? Are there any things that I 开发者_StackOverflowwill not be able to test unless get a service from mobile phone company?

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I've developed several apps now without putting a SIM card in the phone - so you can do it. You just need to be careful with:

• a false sense of speed - wifi is much faster and more reliable than 3G.
• a lack of testing for "real phone interruptions" - e.g. notifications of incoming calls, SMS messages, etc

As a first step, you can also develop on the emulator with no phone at all - but additional things are missing there (GPS, accelerometer) and certain things are slightly different again (e.g. resources load faster, the screen sometimes draws faster)

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If you go the PAYG sim route, beware that some operators (mentioning no names) seemingly give PAYG accounts lower priority to data traffic. This means that you may get even more latency and dropped connections than if you had an account with monthly billing.

This can be frustrating from a development point of view but can be thought of as good as you get an idea of what your users may be having to put up with.

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I know this won't be much help (probably) for non-U.S. users, but I got a Samsung Focus through Amazon Wireless for a penny, then signed up for the cheapest plan possible with AT&T. I haven't got a bill yet, but expect w/tax to pay about $60/mo. The way I figure it, I'll keep it for 180+ days to avoid an early equipment penalty, then either continue with it or sell it off for as much as I can recoup towards the $325 early cancellation. (That's mostly in anticipation of Verizon offering WP7 phones because they have better service where I'm located). I really can't see doing serious mobile device dev without an actual phone. Oh yeah, I offset some of my costs by selling of a 2nd gen. iPod Touch for $75.