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Factory Unlocked iPhone 4 & T-Mobile

D

dav

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 29, 2004
495
10
Thinking about having a friend buy an iPhone 4 in Australia and ship it over factory unlocked. I understand that it wouldn't be able to use the 3G network on T-Mobile, but everything else would be fully operational, correct? Would it simply operate on Edge?

I have the old $6/mo for unlimited internet plan, and don't mind the slow speeds on my iPhone 3G. I have an iPad 3G with unlimited data as well for other things.

Is this the best way to go about this? Really don't want to hop off the T-Mobile family plan.. $150 for five people, unlimited text/mms/internet and essentially minutes. Can't beat that.

Are there better ways to get factory unlocked phones? How much would it cost?


Thanks.
 
dav said:
Thinking about having a friend buy an iPhone 4 in Australia and ship it over factory unlocked. I understand that it wouldn't be able to use the 3G network on T-Mobile, but everything else would be fully operational, correct? Would it simply operate on Edge?

I have the old $6/mo for unlimited internet plan, and don't mind the slow speeds on my iPhone 3G. I have an iPad 3G with unlimited data as well for other things.

Is this the best way to go about this? Really don't want to hop off the T-Mobile family plan.. $150 for five people, unlimited text/mms/internet and essentially minutes. Can't beat that.

Are there better ways to get factory unlocked phones? How much would it cost?


Thanks.
Click to expand...

It should work, but just remember that if it ever needs to be serviced by warranty, you can't do it in the US since it is an AUS device.
 
Newbie question

I thought buying a factory unlocked iphone meant you could just slip in your sim card from any service provider and that I would work.
Is that correct? Why do you say it would not work on T-mobile 3G ?
Thanks.
 
vevima said:
I thought buying a factory unlocked iphone meant you could just slip in your sim card from any service provider and that I would work.
Is that correct? Why do you say it would not work on T-mobile 3G ?
Thanks.
Click to expand...

T-Mobile utilizes a different 3G frequency.
 
Wow! Thanks for the fast answers. Now I understand. I am thinking of getting a factory unlocked iphone4 and slip in my Rogers SIM card. That should work ... hummmmm .... but I would have to cut the card !? :eek:
 
GSM frequency

I'm confused. The iPhone 3G is a quad-band phone, so this shouldn't be an issue, right? T-Mobile uses the 1900 MHz band according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile and the iPhone 3G supports 1900 MHz accourding to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone -- what am I missing? (This is more than an academic question, because I am just about to try the same thing - factory-unlocked European iPhone 3G on US T-Mobile network - am I headed for trouble?)
 
allanamiller said:
I'm confused. The iPhone 3G is a quad-band phone, so this shouldn't be an issue, right? T-Mobile uses the 1900 MHz band according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile and the iPhone 3G supports 1900 MHz accourding to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone -- what am I missing? (This is more than an academic question, because I am just about to try the same thing - factory-unlocked European iPhone 3G on US T-Mobile network - am I headed for trouble?)
Click to expand...

anyone edit Wikipidia just so you know...I can write there that the iP4 use FM for voice....

T-mobile in US use the 1700MHz and 2100MHz for 3G.

I am one of he believer that you will see a T-mobile iPhone before you'll see a Verizon iPhone. I would wait if I were you. T-mobile is moving to HSPA+ on the same Freq as AT&T so, if the Iphone 5 support HSPA+ (which i think it will, and them iP6 LTE), it will work fully on t-Mobiles network.
 
In general, I've found Wikipedia to be pretty accurate on topics that I know about, because otherwise it gets edited fairly soon. The article I referenced does confirm what you say about T-Mobile US using 1700/2100 for its 3G network. But, the phone should pick up the EDGE, shouldn't it? Also, the iPhone article indicates that the iPhone 3G is a tri-band on the 3G frequencies (850/1900/2100) unless I misunderstand that, so it seems like that should also work, no?
 
allanamiller said:
In general, I've found Wikipedia to be pretty accurate on topics that I know about, because otherwise it gets edited fairly soon. The article I referenced does confirm what you say about T-Mobile US using 1700/2100 for its 3G network. But, the phone should pick up the EDGE, shouldn't it? Also, the iPhone article indicates that the iPhone 3G is a tri-band on the 3G frequencies (850/1900/2100) unless I misunderstand that, so it seems like that should also work, no?
Click to expand...

Yeah, 3G, 3GS and iP4 all work on EDGE for T-mobile
 
vevima said:
Wow! Thanks for the fast answers. Now I understand. I am thinking of getting a factory unlocked iphone4 and slip in my Rogers SIM card. That should work ... hummmmm .... but I would have to cut the card !? :eek:
Click to expand...

If you're with Rogers, just get a new sim card from them and update your account with the sim #. That's all I did when I got my factory unlocked iPhone 4 from the Apple store.
 
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