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US unlocked iPhone in UK on O2

M

mhuk01

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 5, 2006
335
0
South West England
I have just purchased an unlocked 8gb iPhone for £300 ($600) from ebay (which seems like a good deal considering most are being sold for as much as £400!)

I am currently on a vodafone contract until february '08, where i intend to renew the contract and sell the free phone i receive, effectively meaning i haven't had to pay for the iphone!

My question is, will it be worth switching to o2 when my contract with vodafone runs out next year? will i be able to take advantage of edge (as opposed to vodafone gprs) and would visual voicemail work? - at the end of the day its still an o2 sim card?

cheers,
Martin
 
Visual Voicemail is a service offered by the various providers that are supporting the iPhone, so as long as the provider has the infrastructure in place, you would not have an issue.
 
mhuk01 said:
I have just purchased an unlocked 8gb iPhone for £300 ($600) from ebay (which seems like a good deal considering most are being sold for as much as £400!)

I am currently on a vodafone contract until february '08, where i intend to renew the contract and sell the free phone i receive, effectively meaning i haven't had to pay for the iphone!

My question is, will it be worth switching to o2 when my contract with vodafone runs out next year? will i be able to take advantage of edge (as opposed to vodafone gprs) and would visual voicemail work? - at the end of the day its still an o2 sim card?

cheers,
Martin
Click to expand...

I think you are better off switching to o2 when your contract runs out... but you are going to have to pay for a new iphone.
 
Nicolasdec said:
I think you are better off switching to o2 when your contract runs out... but you are going to have to pay for a new iphone.
Click to expand...

i am aware i will have to pay for my iphone (i already have - unlocked off ebay). However, when i renew my contract, i will get a free phone (e.g. nokia n95 or equivalent), which i will sell in order to effectively make the iphone free/nearly free overall.

my original q's though - will i be able to use visual voicemail with a standard o2 sim on my unlocked US iphone? and will edge work too?
 
mhuk01 said:
i am aware i will have to pay for my iphone (i already have - unlocked off ebay). However, when i renew my contract, i will get a free phone (e.g. nokia n95 or equivalent), which i will sell in order to effectively make the iphone free/nearly free overall.

my original q's though - will i be able to use visual voicemail with a standard o2 sim on my unlocked US iphone? and will edge work too?
Click to expand...

Also, I what i think is going to happen in the future is that apple will push out a secret update to turn the iphone into a brick.
 
mhuk01 said:
I have just purchased an unlocked 8gb iPhone for £300 ($600) from ebay (which seems like a good deal considering most are being sold for as much as £400!)
Click to expand...

Not a good a deal as waiting and spending £269 and not getting one that'll give you trouble because it's hacked.
 
Nicolasdec said:
Also, I what i think is going to happen in the future is that apple will push out a secret update to turn the iphone into a brick.
Click to expand...

how exactly are they going to do that then? i could see it being possible for them to release a new version of itunes which 'forces' the iphone to upgrade. however, all that would mean is no one would upgrade itunes coz they're iphones would stop functioning.

i personally can't see that being in apple's interest, and even though at&t are on their case regarding the unlocking stuff, it won't come to a forced upgrade - apple's customers were already annoyed enough with an optional upgrade :rolleyes:

bartelby said:
Not a good a deal as waiting and spending £269 and not getting one that'll give you trouble because it's hacked.
Click to expand...

i have to disagree. I am a student and cannot afford an iphone plus £35p/m contract for 18 months.

HOWEVER, i can afford an iphone for 300 quid (which i get back through selling a free phone that i get because of renewing my contract) and then having complete choice over my tariff...
 
mhuk01 said:
how exactly are they going to do that then? i could see it being possible for them to release a new version of itunes which 'forces' the iphone to upgrade. however, all that would mean is no one would upgrade itunes coz they're iphones would stop functioning.

i personally can't see that being in apple's interest, and even though at&t are on their case regarding the unlocking stuff, it won't come to a forced upgrade - apple's customers were already annoyed enough with an optional upgrade :rolleyes:



i have to disagree. I am a student and cannot afford an iphone plus £35p/m contract for 18 months.

HOWEVER, i can afford an iphone for 300 quid (which i get back through selling a free phone that i get because of renewing my contract) and then having complete choice over my tariff...
Click to expand...

If Apple wanted they could easy push out a secret update, that as soon as you plugged in you iphone into you Mac or PC it would brick it, You wouldn't even need to update itunes, it wouldn't even ask you if you wanted to update your iphones firmware. Apple could easy do this.
 
Nicolasdec said:
If Apple wanted they could easy push out a secret update, that as soon as you plugged in you iphone into you Mac or PC it would brick it, You wouldn't even need to update itunes, it wouldn't even ask you if you wanted to update your iphones firmware. Apple could easy do this.
Click to expand...

i completely disagree. putting aside the fact that it's estimated 10% of iphones are unlocked (ie 10% of apple customers who would hate them very much), its simply not possible for a company to manipulate someones computer in this way. say i didn't even have internet, how would they do it then? even with internet, they can't force your computer to download a 50mb or watever filesize update!!! :rolleyes:
 
mhuk01 said:
i completely disagree. putting aside the fact that it's estimated 10% of iphones are unlocked (ie 10% of apple customers who would hate them very much), its simply not possible for a company to manipulate someones computer in this way. say i didn't even have internet, how would they do it then? even with internet, they can't force your computer to download a 50mb or watever filesize update!!! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

10% is a lot. isn't that like 100 Thousand units? And its super easy to push an update with out the user knowing if you have internet access. Microsoft been doing with there "Windows update".
 
Nicolasdec said:
10% is a lot. isn't that like 100 Thousand units? And its super easy to push an update with out the user knowing if you have internet access. Microsoft been doing with there "Windows update".
Click to expand...

there are always ways of avoiding the update. you've just disproved ur own point - you don't have to update with windows update, it just keeps saying it wants to. you can also completely turn this off
 
mhuk01 said:
i am aware i will have to pay for my iphone (i already have - unlocked off ebay). However, when i renew my contract, i will get a free phone (e.g. nokia n95 or equivalent), which i will sell in order to effectively make the iphone free/nearly free overall.

my original q's though - will i be able to use visual voicemail with a standard o2 sim on my unlocked US iphone? and will edge work too?
Click to expand...

You realise you'll only get the free upgrade if you stay on the Vodafone contract...

Silly move IMO, when you could wait 25 days for the real one.
 
RossoA said:
You realise you'll only get the free upgrade if you stay on the Vodafone contract...

Silly move IMO, when you could wait 25 days for the real one.
Click to expand...

you can get a free phone on virtually any new contract in the uk!!!!

if i had 35 pounds per month to waste, i would go the official route, as i don't and can get a free phone to sell on top of having the iphone, this is by far my best option
 
emotion said:
You really think 1. Apple is deliberately bricking phones? 2. They do a Microsoft, like you imply by posting the link?

Not all unlocked iphones got bricked. Only the badly unlocked ones. Is that not true?
Click to expand...

No, I was just showing that if apple wanted to do it they could easily do it.
 
One thing that you're not understanding.

By getting the free upgrade with Vodafone in Feb means that you will be re-signing a 12 or 18 month contract with Vodafone.

Vodafone will not give you a free phone in february and let you end your Vodafone contract.

If you also get an iPhone contract with o2 then you will be running two lines at the same time...or is this what you planned to do all along??:confused:
 
Ninja Dom said:
One thing that you're not understanding.

By getting the free upgrade with Vodafone in Feb means that you will be re-signing a 12 or 18 month contract with Vodafone.

Vodafone will not give you a free phone in february and let you end your Vodafone contract.

If you also get an iPhone contract with o2 then you will be running two lines at the same time...or is this what you planned to do all along??:confused:
Click to expand...

you have misunderstood - i am not planning on going to an o2 'iphone contract'. however, i will either renew my vodafone contract when it runs out OR switch to a standard o2 contract (with a free phone) which i will use with my unlocked US iphone!
i would only wish to switch to o2 if i can get visual voicemail and edge connection though.
I REPEAT - the whole o2 bit isn't the same as getting a UK iphone on an iphone contract!
 
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