I'm American, but reside part-time in Cambodia and travel throughout Asia and The United States frequently. I typically purchase my iPhones in Singapore. But this year, my plan is to pre-order the "T-Mobile" version and purchase in store via the iPhone Upgrade Program. However, you suggested that the initial offering would be SIM free, but wouldn't truly be unlocked as the initial offering would be missing bands critical to certain Asian countries.
According to
GSM Arena, I need only GSM 900, GSM 1800 and UMTS 2100 to be up and running in Cambodia, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore for 3G capabilities, which seems to be included below. But would need LTE 1800, LTE 2600 to access 4G, which doesn't seem to be included below.
And now for my questions:
01 It seems from the intel provided in this
thread that any Asian country can be accessed, and that the phone would only be lacking only 4G capabilities. Is this correct? If yes, then why have you suggested that certain Asian countries could not be accessed?
02 Would an unlocked iPhone (as opposed to a SIM free iPhone), offered later in the year have these LTE bands?
03 Currently I use AirVoice as my carrier when Stateside. I haven't an account with any of the majors. Will I need to create such in order to pre-order?
Your help in sorting the above would be much appreciated!
The T-Mobile version is not the same as the Apple "unlocked" version that is usually release in December! It has limited bands on it while the "unlocked" December version works in about 3/4 of the world including Asia!