bad ESN iphone 5 as ipod touch

I had always thought it was possible to use a bad ESN iphone as an ipod. I bought a bad ESN Sprint iPhone 5 last week on ebay but it had no sim card in it, and I couldn't seem to get passed the initial activation screen. Eventually I bought a sprint nano sim from ebay, but I get this message "The SIM card you currently have installed is from a carrier that is not supported under the activation policy..."

I understand I wont be able to connect to a network, but I just want the device to be useable!

Is it impossible to get passed the activation screen with a bad ESN iphone?

unjailbroken, ios 6.1.4