[Merged]: iPhone Questions

The new iPhones are are between $99-$199 here in the US. We are relocating to the UK soon where it looks like they are around 350 pounds.  Does anybody have any experience with this or know if it is doable? I have found websites for unlocking the phones in the UK but wonder if it's a good idea.

Hubs is a bit of a hacker, but says even he won't attempt jail breaking an iPhone. Only give it a go if you're really confident that you won't screw up your phone, and keep in mind that you won't have access to Apple software and security updates.

After rereading my previous post, I realized that it sounds like I'm only curious about jail breaking the iPhone. What I really want to know is if O2 can/will reprogram the phone so I can use it above board. I want to be able to get the Apple updates and all.

You can get them for free on O2 with a contract, the tarrif is usually around $40-$45 a month. Not too bad imo.

You can get them for free on O2 with a contract, the tarrif is usually around $40-$45 a month. Not too bad imo.

That's what I did.  It's a lot cheaper than I was paying monthly for my palm voice+data subscription in the US and the phone itself was free with an 18 month contract.  

ETA:  I don't know that I could have gotten it when I first moved here without credit.  We were here about 4 months before I got the phone, and used a PAYG until then.  In that 4 months, we'd set up bank accounts and BT/gas/electric/water bills, so we had a tiny little bit of credit history when I got the phone.

My friend actually swapped his contracted iPhone 3G for a PAYG 3Gs with O2 because they give you unlimited data transfer and it was apparently cheaper to buy the phone outright and set it up this way than to sign a new contract for the 3Gs.

I will echo that with contract, they come free at 02.

I would NOT recommend jailbreaking, as uyou can then not receive vital software patches and updates, and alot of the dodgy apps out there will  seriously mess up your phone.

I have an iphone with o2. The contract is reasonable and the phone free. cannot go wrong.

So you can buy the iphone in the US and then get O2 to reconfigure for PAYG?  Given that I'd love to have the phone when I get to the UK (makes searching for flats easier), this seems like the cheapest and perhaps only way to go without waiting for a credit history

So you can buy the iphone in the US and then get O2 to reconfigure for PAYG?  Given that I'd love to have the phone when I get to the UK (makes searching for flats easier), this seems like the cheapest and perhaps only way to go without waiting for a credit history

You can't buy a phone in the US without singing a contract with AT&T. They will not let you out of the store without activating it. And then you'll have more headaches than it's worth to try to get out of the contract when you move.

Furthermore, the mystical $99-$199 price people keep mentioning is for the subsidized phone, meaning, AT&T covers part of the cost as an incentive for you to sign the contract with them. They never allowed the unsubsidised ones to be sold, but for a while when they were talking about it, the prices floated were around $700+

That's not a typo.

You can choose to sign the contract, buy the phone and then pay the additional $175 early termination fee to own the phone outright, but there's no guarantee they might not make you return the phone anyway or charge you additional money for it.

http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/legal/return-policy.jsp

ETA: You can't buy a NEW phone without signing a contract. I think the first generation ones should be going out of contract either around now or soon, so those will be available on the resale market.