Thread: iPhone
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Old 07-13-2008, 02:44 PM   #85
Evilmav2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BGMaverick9
Yeah, I know it's not easily obtainable for the 3G unlocked. But there are the first generations of the iphone out there on ebay to buy that are unlocked...I'm just not sure how the whole process works.

I have AT&T/Cingular.
What I've heard is that if it's unlocked you can just plug the sim card in there and use it like normal. But how does that all work with the phone you were using...its just dead now? And you still have your full minutes and text packages you had with the original phone, it just goes to the iphone now?
OK... I may be completely wrong here, but I'll take a shot at answering your questions. As of today, the 3G faster internet speeds are only available on the new iphone via AT&T, but considering the fact that the new Apple iphone firmware has reportedly been hacked, eventually you should be able to utilize an unlocked iphone 3G on other carriers, either through a simple exchange of sim cards, or else by utilizing hacked software fixes to make it work. That said, because the 3G iphone was just released yesterday, it will probably be months before any volume of unlocked 3G iphones appear on ebay or elsewhere, so that's kind of pie in the sky stuff for now unless you have a lot of money that you want to burn...

Of course, you could buy an older iphone on ebay today, but it would not work with the faster 3G speeds unless Apple upgrades the 1st generations firmware sometime in the near future (something that they will probably not do for many months, again assuming that it is even possible to make the original iphone work with 3G), and also, you will not receive any kind of price break on older unlocked iphones because Europeans and Asian are buying them in droves for use overseas and consequently they are usually selling for about $400-500 on ebay (I know, I have been following the prices waiting for them to fall for quite a few months now)...

Additionally, considering the fact that you are currently an AT&T customer, it really wouldn't make much sense for you to buy any unlocked phone, mainly because even if you were to buy an unlocked 3G iphone a couple of months from now when they are more readily available, it would probably cost you more than the $199 that AT&T is currently charging, and you would still have to pay the new fees to make it's internet functions work on their 3g network. And also, your minutes and text package should all transfer over automatically to a new phone when you move your sim card from phone to phone...
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Last edited by Evilmav2; 07-13-2008 at 03:48 PM.
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