Hi,

To answer your question, it can not be done unless you have the BES plan added to your account, which is currently $44.99/month.  If I read the article you mentioned in your post correctly, it states the following:

Note: BlackBerry smartphones cannot be activated over the wireless network or the organization's Wi-Fi® network if they have a data plan for BlackBerry Internet Service only.

I read that as if you have a Blackberry that is currently on a data plan (BIS), the regular individual data plan, you can not activate your device.  Hope this helps,

Doc