Any experience with unlocked iPhone purchased in Hong Kong?

[amcan12]

Apple Store in Hong Kong is selling unlocked Iphones 3G - the link states "Buy directly from Apple and choose your carrier":

http://store.apple.com/hk

The iPhone "Buy" page states:

iPhone 3G purchased at the Apple Online Store can be activated with any wireless carrier. Simply insert the SIM from your current phone into iPhone 3G and connect to iTunes 8 to complete activation.

Now the questions:

1. Can it be activated with any carrier or with Hong Kong carrier only?

2. Once activated can it be used in any other country using SIM from such country or is it locked to the carrier who's SIM was used during activation?

Did anyone tried it yet? It is being sold in HK Apple Store since July, thus I hope someone has some experience to report on.

 

[Pressure]

When the iPhone is activated through iTunes it becomes unlocked and free to use with any carrier.

At least that is how it is done in Denmark where you can get it unlocked for a small fee.

I have tested it with three different carrier SIMs and it works fine.

 

[amcan12]

Thanks Pressure,

One more question though - how it goes with syncing and updates? Do I need to have the same SIM iPhone was activated with when updating and syncing or it is irrelevant once iPhone is activated?

 

[Kaushal]

When the iPhone is activated through iTunes it becomes unlocked and free to use with any carrier.

At least that is how it is done in Denmark where you can get it unlocked for a small fee.

I have tested it with three different carrier SIMs and it works fine.

how much they charge for unlocking?

 

[ying yang]

I think he means you can pay the carrier extra for an unlocked iPhone. Unlocking after buying a locked phone is impossible with 3Gs at the moment.

As for the question about updates: I have an Italian unit which was sold unlocked like those in Hong Kong. I've restored / updated multiple times and it's still unlocked. I don't even think I could make it locked on purpose if I wanted to. It's unlocked no matter what you do to it.

 

[amcan12]

Thanks ying yang. When updating, syncing, etc. - do you use the same SIM that was used to activate the iPhone or a different one?

 

[ying yang]

There was no SIM in the phone when I received it. I was anxious to test mine so I put my O2 SIM into it straight out of the box without even connecting it to iTunes and it recognised it immediately. Full service, internet, everything. I then restored and updated to 2.1, the phone rebooted as it normally does after a restore, iTunes recognised it and showed me the screen for choosing to restore from a back up or set it up as a new phone. I never saw the screen for activation in iTunes, but my phone itself showed a pop-up dialog box on the lock screen that said "iPhone has been activated" or whatever. Since then I've restored twice (jailbreaking / pwning issues) and it's gone identically to that time.

I get how you feel. While I was waiting for it to arrive I was convinced that I would accidentally relock the phone somehow, which is why I restored it immediately. I didn't want to go a few weeks, have to restore for some reason and then be asked for my Italian SIM. If it wasn't going to work I wanted to know right then so I could return it or something