Problems connecting to WiFi on first setup of new Mac; can we bypass network setup completely?

I'm trying to help my stepfather (remotely) set up his new M3 MacBook Air, but we're getting stalled at the point of connecting to his new, Bell Canada, WiFi. We have the correct SSID and password from his old system, but when we look at the network list in Setup Assistant, it shows up as an unlocked WiFi and when we try to connect to that it fails. Trying the "Other…" option to manually enter SSID and password results in a "Network name or password incorrect" when we KNOW they aren't. Is there a way to completely bypass the network setup steps of Setup Assistant? We can skip WiFi setup, but then it wants an IP setup using DHCP or manually.