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Unlocking the iPhone in Australia...

B

beer.coffee

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 1, 2007
72
0
Gold Coast, Australia
Well we've all heard the news about the unlocking, now i was just wondering what this means for us Aussies...

I'd be willing to import the iPhone prior to the official release if i knew that it would work. Though unfortunately i'm not very down to earth with the Australia telecommunications industry and have no idea what all those 3G, NextG, GSM things means. I know Telstra, after an initial bagging of the iPhone, displayed interest in being the official provider.

Since i am currently on a Telstra plan, does this mean that if i chuck in my SIM card it will be all well and good? Or will i have to subscribe to some sort of data plan.

And just another note. Do you think it is wise to import the thing? Australia wouldn't have a warranty policy on the item yet, and even if they did would they accept a warranty claim on a phone purchased from the states? I know that if you purchase an AppleCare plan you can claim warranty stuff from anywhere in the world. But does that have to be purchased from Australia. This would be the only thing thats only keeping me from getting one now.

Any other issues that would be important to us???
 
beer.coffee said:
Well we've all heard the news about the unlocking, now i was just wondering what this means for us Aussies...

I'd be willing to import the iPhone prior to the official release if i knew that it would work. Though unfortunately i'm not very down to earth with the Australia telecommunications industry and have no idea what all those 3G, NextG, GSM things means. I know Telstra, after an initial bagging of the iPhone, displayed interest in being the official provider.

Since i am currently on a Telstra plan, does this mean that if i chuck in my SIM card it will be all well and good? Or will i have to subscribe to some sort of data plan.

And just another note. Do you think it is wise to import the thing? Australia wouldn't have a warranty policy on the item yet, and even if they did would they accept a warranty claim on a phone purchased from the states? I know that if you purchase an AppleCare plan you can claim warranty stuff from anywhere in the world. But does that have to be purchased from Australia. This would be the only thing thats only keeping me from getting one now.

Any other issues that would be important to us???
Click to expand...

im an aussie too..and i actually never thought about that unlocking thing. so heres how the networks work..i think:

gsm is like oldschool..its quite slow. then '3' came out with phones ages ago that could use 3G network. which is slightly faster..for streaming videos etc. so 3G was all the rage for a while..now telstra has come out with NextG. a step up from 3G. this is the cutting edge in australia..not sure how good it actually is compared to other countries. u no what australias like with phone and internet..about a million years behind.

on to the unlocking..i reckon if you bought the iphone and then unlocked it..thered me no reason we couldnt use it. becuase here in australia we are on triband..but america's on quad band..meaning they can use phones here..but we cant use ours there. so taking a phone from them and bringing it here should work.

about the warranty..bit of an iffy issue..i have no idea really.

hope all of that made sense. i can be pretty unclear with my explanations at times.
 
A very clear explanation, thanks!

So basically, it will work here if we unlock it, but to the speed at which it will work....questionable.

Has anyone used NextG with a smartphone?
My general usage would include sending emails a fair bit (sometimes with photos) and usage the internet a few times a day for 10 minutes at a time. How does that sort of activity handle on the NextG network?
 
i'm aussie in the sense that i live here:p

i'm seriously considering importing an iPhone, and have been for some time (since january in fact)

telstra are the only ones who can support the iPhone's EDGE as far as i can see...their fees are expensive, but iPhone in oz this year was never going to be cheap

say AU$1000 at least for having an iPhone delivered (no warrantee i'm afraid)....plus monthly bill of about $80 for decent use (i'm still unsure if the linked page counts for EDGE services though.........
 
beer.coffee said:
A very clear explanation, thanks!

So basically, it will work here if we unlock it, but to the speed at which it will work....questionable.

Has anyone used NextG with a smartphone?
My general usage would include sending emails a fair bit (sometimes with photos) and usage the internet a few times a day for 10 minutes at a time. How does that sort of activity handle on the NextG network?
Click to expand...

as far as my knowledge goes..the NextG network is exclusive to australia. and the iPhone uses the EDGE network. EDGE is considerably slower than NextG and i dont think we have EDGE here in australia (unless some provider like Optus has an EDGE network). so the internet features may not work here..unless ur using the WiFi on the iPhone and within range of a wireless network. the phone calling and stuff should work fine.

to answer ur question about how ur usage would be handled on NextG..it would be amazing..but i dont think the iPhone can use NextG.

my best bet..after thinking about all that..is to wait for the iPhone to officially be released in australia. should be within first half of next yr.

btw..the fact that u can understand my rambling amazes me!
 
Have you guys considered virginmobile? They offer a 3g plan alongside their mobile phone plan. It's $10 a month and allows for 300mb of downloads. It doesn't sound like much but compared to what I saw from teltra its a hell of a lot better.

The only catch is that you have to have a mobile plan with VirginMobile aswell. They start from $20/month.

I'm currently using this to access net through my phone>bt>pda. It's not too shabby but my phone is only 2.5g so i'm still only getting max 6kb/s on the Australian network.

Soemthing for you to consider!
 
This is going to be a hard choice...

I'd be willing to pay a bit for the mobile usage costs....say around $75 a month.

But if the phone was to cark it on me i think that the cost would be, much greater. And considering its a first generation product, there may still be a few flaws that need ironing out...

What do you guys think? It'd probably be smart waiting 3-9 months for the phone...but arg that is such a long wait...i want to be in the future now.
 
i really dno what to say. if it was me..id wait. just think..the wait will well worth it. also..by the time it comes here it may be in 2nd gen. i think the risks are too high to bring one here (which wont be able to use mobile internet, visual voicemail etc.) also $599 is huge price considering how much our dollar just dropped in the last week.

just my thoughts.
 
In regards to the australian dollar vs the us...importing it will still be cheaper.

AUS$1450 for a yank iMac
AUS$1700 for an aussie iMac

Does anyone know whether we are charged some sort of tax when we import an of electronic item from the us?


Though yeah considering that a revision of the iPhone may well occur before we even get the thing, i'd say that it would probably be wise to hold out a bit. Especially considering the fact that the warranty may not cover international claims and might not even cover the fact that we have unlocked the phone from the designated carrier.

Does anyone know whether its legal to unlock phones from their contracted network in australia??
 
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