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Has anyone canceled their 3Gs AT&T contract just to get the phone?

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Original poster
Feb 24, 2006
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I'm an American living in London. When I come home for the holidays I was thinking of signing up with AT&T to get the 3Gs, then canceling it.

I'd like an iPhone that I could bring to any country and just pop a local sim in it. I travel all around Europe and north Africa and this would be incredibly convenient.

I have a few questions (which might be basic) but I hope you guys can help me out:

1. If I terminate my AT&T contract, do they unlock the phone? Or would I have to hack it?

2. If I pop a UK or Portuguese-carrier sim into the iPhone, I assume I would just get voice and for data I'd have to use the wifi. Is this correct?

3. Does the compass work without a data connection?

4. Does the GPS work without a data connection? I don't mean the maps, I'm referring to if the geodata would be tagged on photos I took on the iPhone without a data connection?

I got this idea after reading this Gizmodo article:

http://gizmodo.com/5021186/dont-buy-an-unlocked-iphone-from-att-just-cancel-a-new-contract

From the Gizmodo Article:

"Since AT&T's unlocked iPhone 3Gs will cost you $599 (8GB) or $699 (16GB), you are better off signing a contract and canceling it than buying an unlocked iPhone. In fact, it's even cheaper to buy a 16GB iPhone using this method than to buy and unlock an 8GB version. But math isn't our strong suit so go ahead and double-check our calculations. We won't be offended:

$299 - 16GB iPhone w/contract
$36 - Activation
$175 - Early Termination Fee
$70 - One month of service

Total Price Using The Shady Method: $580

So...

8GB iPhone Canceled: $480
16GB iPhone Canceled: $580
8GB iPhone Unlocked from AT&T: $599
16GB iPhone Unlocked from AT&T: $699

Are we missing something?"
 
Why not just buy an iPod Touch? Wait until the Spring to see if it gets the camera.
 
Even if you pay full price, the iPhone isn't unlocked. Gizmodo is wrong. You get the same phone as new customers would, but you pay more, and get it w/o the contract, but locked to at$t
 
ouimetnick said:
Even if you pay full price, the iPhone isn't unlocked. Gizmodo is wrong. You get the same phone as new customers would, but you pay more, and get it w/o the contract, but locked to at$t
Click to expand...

That's so lame!
 
If you had bothered to do a search, you would have found plenty of other threads discussing this kind of fraud. People like you are the reason Verizon increased their ETF for smartphones to $375. Why should the rest of us pay for your iPhone?
 
thelatinist said:
If you had bothered to do a search, you would have found plenty of other threads discussing this kind of fraud. People like you are the reason Verizon increased their ETF for smartphones to $375. Why should the rest of us pay for your iPhone?
Click to expand...

Whoa. Relax. Your 'I'm Always the Victim' Badge is in the mail. I'm sure you'll wear it proudly.
 
thelatinist said:
If you had bothered to do a search, you would have found plenty of other threads discussing this kind of fraud. People like you are the reason Verizon increased their ETF for smartphones to $375. Why should the rest of us pay for your iPhone?
Click to expand...

there is absolutely ZERO things illegal about canceling a contract and paying the ETF. your claim of fraud is slanderous.
 
Depending how much you want to spend, you can buy legitimately unlocked iPhones from UK site Play.com. Starting at £499 ($823.85 USD) for an 8gb iPhone 3G.
 
thelatinist said:
Who do you think is paying for your fraudulently-obtained iPod? Legitimate AT&T customers, that's who. Man up and pay full price for your iPhone.
Click to expand...

Are you daft? Paying an ETF after cancelation comes out to the same if not more than just ouright buying the phone.
 
AT&T decided what their ETF was.
If they thought that they were losing revenue, they would increase it.
 
chstr said:
there is absolutely ZERO things illegal about canceling a contract and paying the ETF. your claim of fraud is slanderous.
Click to expand...

yeah! Termination is in terms of service so completely legal.

That other chap needs to have a baileys and put on some jazz and chill out.
 
thelatinist said:
Many things are not illegal buy remain entirely unethical. I never said it was illegal. It is, however, wrong.
Click to expand...

If you read in AT&T's terms of service it specifically says ETF is NOT a punishment. That would lead me to belive it's for the sole perpose of covering the subsidy.
 
back to the OP, this would be a fine way to get your phone contract-free and I even cringe at you saying it's somehow "shady". Now getting it unlocked to use on any carrier may be another matter entirely. i don't know but you may have to hack it which could fall under the "shady" term for some...
 
Can all the people who are having babies over signing a contact just to ETF your way out of it PLEASE look at my original post???

The text in BOLD is from the Gizmodo article, not from me.

Jeez.
 
thelatinist said:
Many things are not illegal buy remain entirely unethical. I never said it was illegal. It is, however, wrong.
Click to expand...

If a company offers you a perfectly legal contract allowing you to either do A or B, why would you consider exercising one of those options which they offered you as unethical or wrong?

Your credit card company allows you to pay off your current balance at a certain amount per month over time, or by paying a lesser amount to pay the balance off completely. Do you consider paying off your credit card bill as unethical or wrong just because the credit card company won't make their usual amount of profit from their fairly high interest rate?

Same with a cell phone contract.
 
Since the OP is living in London, I'm not sure why he's even considering buying an iPhone in the US. I understand that you can now get officially unlocked iPhones in the UK, while in the US they are all locked to AT&T. And no, they won't unlock it even if you cancel your contract.
 
Night Spring said:
Since the OP is living in London, I'm not sure why he's even considering buying an iPhone in the US. I understand that you can now get officially unlocked iPhones in the UK, while in the US they are all locked to AT&T. And no, they won't unlock it even if you cancel your contract.
Click to expand...

because when you take the exchange rate into account it's still cheaper getting an ATT contract and invoking the ETF than buying an unlocked one in the uk.
 
loft3 said:
because when you take the exchange rate into account it's still cheaper getting an ATT contract and invoking the ETF than buying an unlocked one in the uk.
Click to expand...

I see. But exactly how much is the price diff? You also should take into account the convenience of an officially unlocked phone versus a hacked one. Currently, new 3GS can only be jailbroken with a tethered jailbreak, which means you need a computer, a USB cable, and a copy of the jailbreak program every time you need to reboot or restart the iPhone.
 
Night Spring said:
I see. But exactly how much is the price diff? You also should take into account the convenience of an officially unlocked phone versus a hacked one. Currently, new 3GS can only be jailbroken with a tethered jailbreak, which means you need a computer, a USB cable, and a copy of the jailbreak program every time you need to reboot or restart the iPhone.
Click to expand...

and that's why i posted my question here. now that i know ETFing your ATT iPhone doesn't unlock it, I'm not going that route.
 
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