Can I use my U.S. 3gs in Australia?

[southpaw17]

I am located in the U.S. and bought my 3gs back in July i think. Now I am moving to Australia for a while and want to be able to keep in touch with people back home via call or text. Mainly text though. I have checked with AT&T but they do not have international texts and I would be paying $0.50 per text and that's not going to happen. What is my best route for keeping my phone and being able to text and possibly call internationally? Thanks

[Moi un Mouton]

if your firmware is 3.1, you can't. If it's 3.0.x, you have to jailbreak and unlock the phone, then you can. Find the tutorials here: http://www.iclarified.com/tutorials/iphone/index.php

Having said that, if you buy an iPhone in Aus, I believe the networks will officially unlock it for a fee - this involves registering the phone's IMEI number with the Apple servers. I don't know if they can do this for a phone that they did not sell but I'm guessing that they can - you could check that out, though I do recognise this means waiting till you get there to find out. If not, well you could buy one locally and sell your own on eBay to recoup some of the cost.....

[countrydweller]

Find a wireless spot and use skype or such.