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buying an unlocked iphone for vodafone uk - advice

T

thetonyclifton

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 21, 2006
137
0
Belfast - UK
I have been offered an unlocked and jailbroken iphone (american) to use with my vodafone uk contract...what do I need to consider?

Will everything still work properly - my free texts etc...I assume so.

How will the internet functionality work for checking email? I currently have blackberry email (which I will have to cancel)

If I buy a £7.50 internet bolt on (120mb) will this allow me to check my emails on the iphone...I am light email user, only a few a day.

Can I set the iphone up to only check my emails when I ask it to?

What other disadvantages or problems might I face?

Please help, I have to decide if I should buy it or not asap.
 
thetonyclifton said:
I have been offered an unlocked and jailbroken iphone (american) to use with my vodafone uk contract...what do I need to consider?

Will everything still work properly - my free texts etc...I assume so.

How will the internet functionality work for checking email? I currently have blackberry email (which I will have to cancel)

If I buy a £7.50 internet bolt on (120mb) will this allow me to check my emails on the iphone...I am light email user, only a few a day.

Can I set the iphone up to only check my emails when I ask it to?

What other disadvantages or problems might I face?

Please help, I have to decide if I should buy it or not asap.
Click to expand...

Texts will be fine
internet may require some setting up
email can be set to manual update
you are missing visual voicemail
warranty is invalid here since friday i think
 
i have an unlocked US iphone on vodafone uk - works perfectly except for visual voicemail, but you can link the button to your voicemail account!

in terms of the 7.50 bolt on, 120mb isn't much but unless you are doing lots of surfing it should be ok. just save any 3rd party app downloading in installer for when you are in wifi hotspots..
 
thanks so much, can you share any more experiences with me, good or bad?

I wont be doing any real surfing except on wifi and no downloading unless on wifi..so the 120mb might do me just for email as a light user?

Anything you can share with me about positives or negatives would be great as you have done the same thing.

mhuk01 said:
i have an unlocked US iphone on vodafone uk - works perfectly except for visual voicemail, but you can link the button to your voicemail account!

in terms of the 7.50 bolt on, 120mb isn't much but unless you are doing lots of surfing it should be ok. just save any 3rd party app downloading in installer for when you are in wifi hotspots..
Click to expand...
 
How did you set up the £7.50 bolt on internet, the vodafone guy told me it might need to be set up manually (proxy settings etc I think)?????


mhuk01 said:
i have an unlocked US iphone on vodafone uk - works perfectly except for visual voicemail, but you can link the button to your voicemail account!

in terms of the 7.50 bolt on, 120mb isn't much but unless you are doing lots of surfing it should be ok. just save any 3rd party app downloading in installer for when you are in wifi hotspots..
Click to expand...
 
I wouldn't browse on it anyway, just for retrieving emails....have you any idea about using their GPRS for email....I have been told I may have to manually input the settings in order to use vodafone's GPRS network from the iphone???

edesignuk said:
Vodafone have no EDGE, so you'll be stuck browsing strictly on GPRS, oh the pain!
Click to expand...
 
thetonyclifton said:
I wouldn't browse on it anyway, just for retrieving emails....have you any idea about using their GPRS for email....I have been told I may have to manually input the settings in order to use vodafone's GPRS network from the iphone???
Click to expand...
Yes you will have to reconfigure the internet connection settings, of course (don't ask me how, I don't have one).

GPRS should be ok for text based email, have fun opening anything with attachments though :eek:
 
Thanks...yeah I know, but I have the ability on my blackberry and dont use it very often..just text based.

If you dont know how....do you know if its possible....i.e the phone has a menu where you can change the settings?


edesignuk said:
Yes you will have to reconfigure the internet connection settings, of course (don't ask me how, I don't have one).

GPRS should be ok for text based email, have fun opening anything with attachments though :eek:
Click to expand...
 
Vodafone UK GPRS iPhone

edesignuk said:
Yes you will have to reconfigure the internet connection settings, of course (don't ask me how, I don't have one).

GPRS should be ok for text based email, have fun opening anything with attachments though :eek:
Click to expand...

I've signed up for the free test-month with Vodafone on their GPRS. I can't seem to get online to check e-mail etc.

What settings are needed?

Thanks,

F
 
I have an iPhone on vodafone

APN: internet
username: wap
password: wap

PM me for more info
 
I was thinking of buying an unlocked iphone for use on my orange contract. I'm not paying the £35 a month that O2 want for 200 texts when I'm currently paying £20 for unlimited!

My question is - would I simply just put in my old SIM card to get it to work, or would something else need to be done?

I have also heard about the phone 'bricking' itself through updates. Is it possible to avoid these updates completely, or will downloading applications or using itunes automatically do it?
 
TonyHoyle said:
They do have, but it's strictly being enabled on a replacement basis - as a cell tower dies due to age etc. it gets replaced with an EDGE capable one.

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/11242/12266/vodafone-rolls-out-edge-uk.phtml

I suspect it's more because you can't buy non-EDGE capable hardware any more rather than any real policy.
Click to expand...

koobcamuk said:
I get edge on Vodafone... :)
Click to expand...
Then I stand corrected. Good to know...just in case I ever break one day and get one :eek:
 
wordsearch said:
I was thinking of buying an unlocked iphone for use on my orange contract. I'm not paying the £35 a month that O2 want for 200 texts when I'm currently paying £20 for unlimited!

My question is - would I simply just put in my old SIM card to get it to work, or would something else need to be done?

I have also heard about the phone 'bricking' itself through updates. Is it possible to avoid these updates completely, or will downloading applications or using itunes automatically do it?
Click to expand...

a) you need to unlock it (still waiting)
b) iTunes will ask you. Do not download any updates.
 
hey thetonyclifton,

I've been using an unlocked US iPhone in the UK on Vodafone for the last month or so -

texts and calls all work perfectly - you just can't do visual voicemail, as some people have already pointed out.

The internet works well too - Vodafone does have EDGE in quite a lot of areas, especially in London. It's still pretty slow, but it's definitely usable - the only thing I've found is that larger emails (ie ones with photos, other attachments etc) sometimes fail to load through EDGE (but then work on WiFi)

The settings I'm using (and they work perfectly for Safari and for sending/receiving email through Mail) are:

APN: internet
Username: user
Password: user

You can set the Mail app to only check for messages manually - just go to Setting>Mail and set 'Auto-Check' to Manual.

I've also got the 7.50 internet bolt-on and I've only used around 90MB in the past month (which includes upload and download) - the phone has a Usage screen which tells me exactly how much data I've used. I'm also a light email user and use the browser mainly for checking directions, train times etc.

The only disadvantage in getting an unlocked phone is the lack of warranty.

Hope this has helped!
 
mhuk01 said:
i have an unlocked US iphone on vodafone uk - works perfectly except for visual voicemail, but you can link the button to your voicemail account!

in terms of the 7.50 bolt on, 120mb isn't much but unless you are doing lots of surfing it should be ok. just save any 3rd party app downloading in installer for when you are in wifi hotspots..
Click to expand...

so far every time i go into an apple store, to see the new goodies for the iphone, i see that there's a lot of people with iphone problems, some have touch screen problems, and some sound issues... which is funky because i never see an ipod touch, which i thought was based on the same architecture, how many people out side the us have had problems and what do they do with the phones? since i don't think you can just walk into the apple store with an american serialized iphone..?
 
iPhone 3GS 16GB on Vodafone UK

I have an unlocked iPhone 3GS 16GB (Australian) working on Vodafone UK network. Absolutely fantastic phone - everything works EXCEPT whilst roaming I cannot SEND emails via smtp.btconnect.com. I used to be able to with my Blackberry. I CAN send O K whilst connected to WiFi.
Does anyone out there have any ideas ??

N.B. - I do find that phone reception is fairly poor - I have a lot more 'No Reception' areas with the iPhone than with any other phone used.
 
Just found the answer for smtp settings for BT - and it works.

Host Name: smtp.btconnect.com
Username: customerusername@btconnect.com
Password: customerpassword
Use SSL: Off
Authentication: Password

Now I just need to find out how to get better phone reception ................
 
Have a look at the coverage map:

Coverage

If it shows you are in good coverage, go outside for a bit. Walls are bad for signal. If no better, phone customer services a log a compliant. Someone will investigate.

If you are in a bad signal area, got a VAG
 
We have a Vodafone Access Gateway at the office - it is fantastic - BUT only if you have a 3G phone. I just need one in the car now !
 
theboss2012 said:
I have an unlocked iPhone 3GS 16GB (Australian) working on Vodafone UK network. Absolutely fantastic phone - everything works EXCEPT whilst roaming I cannot SEND emails via smtp.btconnect.com. I used to be able to with my Blackberry. I CAN send O K whilst connected to WiFi.
Does anyone out there have any ideas ??

N.B. - I do find that phone reception is fairly poor - I have a lot more 'No Reception' areas with the iPhone than with any other phone used.
Click to expand...

hi - I am considering buying an Australian iPhone for use on Vodafone in UK when I visit Australia in the near future - did you manage to get any sort of international warranty? What would you have to do if it broke?

Thanks.
 
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