Circumventing US exclusivity via Euro Cell Phones

[peletrane]

Hello,
I live in the US and have been using T Mobile for years now--I'm out of contract, and was able to replace a broken phone with a new one, and just simply put in my old SIM card. I still continue to use T Mobile.

Now, if, say, T Mobile wins the rights to iPhone in Europe (where apaprently they don't have LOCKED phones) and I don't want to swtich to Cingular/AT&T, can I just purchase a European iPhone and then put my US-based T Mobile SIM card in it??? Would that work???

Thanks in advance for any informative replies as how these things work..

 

[mkrishnan]

*If* the iPhone is released in Europe unlocked (and that doesn't appear to be a gimme at this point), then, basically, yes. If you can get your hands on one, you can use it with T-Mobile. Presumably most of the features should work if you pay for a T-Mobile EDGE plan. It should be more or less like any other cell phone in that regard. Some features may not work exactly rightly if they rely on subtleties of the way T-Mo or whoever the European carrier turns out to be, and those subtleties differ from the way T-Mo/US does things.

I'm kinda hoping for an unlocked option to use T-Mobile also....

 

[Veldek]

My understanding ist that there are locked phones in Europe, too. My brother could just have got a new one when his contract ran out. I wanted him to buy the K600i and then give it to me, but the phone would have been locked, so he couldn't. There are unlocked phones though, too.

As to your question: I don't know - this whole mobile phone thing becomes much too complicated for me... Or I just get old...

 

[ruutiveijari]

My understanding ist that there are locked phones in Europe, too.

Yes, there are locked phones in europe.

 

[davidjearly]

My understanding ist that there are locked phones in Europe, too. My brother could just have got a new one when his contract ran out. I wanted him to buy the K600i and then give it to me, but the phone would have been locked, so he couldn't. There are unlocked phones though, too.

As to your question: I don't know - this whole mobile phone thing becomes much too complicated for me... Or I just get old...

This is correct, including the UK as part of Europe, it is predominately locked handsets that are sold with contracts. However, many of these can be then unlocked after purchase. You can also buy unlocked 'sim free' handsets and sometimes people will be lucky, receiving an unlocked phone as part of their contract.

David

 

[whooleytoo]

I just read how Carphone Warehouse are pitching to be the UK provider - they even have a pre-order form on their site.

(Having read the article though, it just looks like a smart CEO realised that dropping a mention of the iPhone would be enough to get several paragraphs of free advertising for his company! Smart guy.)