iphone 4, 5.0.1, AT&T, Egypt, etc

[ipodquestion]

Yes, lots of similar questions on this forum - but similar isn't the same...

Have an iPhone 4, bought from AT&T, running 5.0.1. Heading to Egypt soon to shoot photos, plan to be there, Libya, Tunisia, etc for six months. Will then be back in the USA and will use my iPhone again here. So...

If I cancel my AT&T contract and pay their fine, jailbreak and unlock the phone, go to Egypt and cut down a local SIM card to fit and pay local rates, then what? When I get back to States, will I have to sign another two year contract with AT&T (or Verizon, etc)?

Is this really the best way to do this, or is there a better way that I'm missing?

Thanks in advance

 

[Kyotoma]

If you plan on spending time abroad, you should be able to suspend your local account, of which your iPhone will no longer work on AT&T. Then, after jailbreaking/unlocking your iPhone, You should be able to get a local prepay micro SIM from the local carrier(Vodafone for Egypt, Orange for Tunisia, etc).

List of all iPhone carriers can be found here.

 

[icewing]

If you're on ios 5, are you sure you can unlock? Check your baseband and make sure you CAN unlock it.