There should be no difference. "Out of the box" and after a reset, the phone is a blank slate and won't work until it talks to Apple.
Part of that activation process involves getting a token back that instructs the phone how it should be locked, or not at all.
The unlock process that AT&T (and every other iPhone carrier) does is that they instruct Apple to update the record on their activation server to say your phone should be getting a "fully unlocked" response. Next time you tether the phone to iTunes it checks the activation token and unlocks the phone.
Comments
There should be no difference. "Out of the box" and after a reset, the phone is a blank slate and won't work until it talks to Apple.
Part of that activation process involves getting a token back that instructs the phone how it should be locked, or not at all.
The unlock process that AT&T (and every other iPhone carrier) does is that they instruct Apple to update the record on their activation server to say your phone should be getting a "fully unlocked" response. Next time you tether the phone to iTunes it checks the activation token and unlocks the phone.