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Right now Sprint and Verizon use the same technology. Sprint is rolling out wiNMax, which the iPhone won't support and later this year, Verizon will roll out LTE, which the iPhone currently does not support. Even the next model won't support it. It is a waste to go down the CDMA path.

Even with LTE, you will see phones being locked.

Sadly we probably wont see a Verizon iPhone on LTE unless it also supports CDMA. Why? What happens when you happen to wander into a no Verizon LTE area with the Verizon LTE iPhone? You fall back to CDMA, oh wait no you don't you have no cell service at all...
 
Sadly we probably wont see a Verizon iPhone on LTE unless it also supports CDMA. Why? What happens when you happen to wander into a no Verizon LTE area with the Verizon LTE iPhone? You fall back to CDMA, oh wait no you don't you have no cell service at all...

No, you'll just end up roaming on AT&T or T-Mobile.
 
I hope unlocked, non-contract-bound cell phones in the U.S. become so common that they become commoditized. Of course, one can speculate on whether or not Apple could afford to remain in the market if that happened, but this might represent a sort of tipping of Apple's hand in that regard.
 
Tried to buy contract free phone today

I went to the Apple Store on W 14th St in the West Village today, to see about purchasing a contract free iPhone. I told the gal what I wanted and she was all giggly and said ok, they'd only been doing this for two days. I asked her if I needed to buy anything else with the iPhone and she went and asked a guy who she thought knew more about iPhones options than she did. This little Nazi came up to me and started speaking in raised tones and repeated almost verbatim what someone above posted: "You can only get it if you are an existing att costumer to replace an existing iPhone that is broken and or lost. It cannot be used to start a new service with att thus you must purchase the 3G at the $199 price. the no contract phone can also be purchased to use as an add a line for a family talk." He said this with a almost religious fervor that I found appalling, very Axis/Fascist type thing going on. The raised voice had me thinking "Is he making an example out of me? Will he be speaking in tongues next?"
I left iPhone-less and didn't buy any of the other items on my list.
 
Any speculation on what impact this may have on how things will be done when the new iPhone is released?

That is, how might it be sold? Locked or unlocked? Contract or no?
 
bleh

bleh.
so they finally sell it unlocked, but i have to use something as sucko as T-Mobile if i want to make calls? i have plenty of friends that constantly gripe about TMobile and how they wish they would have never went with them.

um. i think i'll pass.

i seriously would buy an unlocked one if that wasn't the downside of it.

let me know when i can buy an Iphone and use Verizon as my provider, and have 3G.

other than the fact that they are selling it unlocked, it's pretty worthless news to me..
 
keep up with it....

sorry to burst your bubble but vodafone new zealand has been offering this since the 3g was released last year... about NZ$980 for 8gb and NZ$1200 for 16gb
 
sorry to burst your bubble but vodafone new zealand has been offering this since the 3g was released last year... about NZ$980 for 8gb and NZ$1200 for 16gb

at that price i promise you that you are bursting NO ONE's bubble....
but yeah, i do realize that Vodafone and Verizon are the same company, and it sux that the US missed out on a Verizon Iphone because at least where i live, AT&T is NOT the best choice if you want a reliable connection, Verizon is.
 
Actually, I went into Optus in Sydney several times in the last two months to buy and recharge a prepaid Optus SIM for my unlocked iPhone 2G whilst I was on vacation in Australia. I spoke with the Optus staff a fair bit about the iPhone 3G as recently as two weeks ago. You CAN purchase a prepaid contract-free iPhone 3G with prepaid SIM and the unlock for an extra charge. I decided not to pull the trigger and buy one, and instead wait to see if a new hardware model was available in June/July. You have to specifically ask for a prepaid iPhone 3G. They treat the prepaid iPhones as different stock than the postpaid contract iPhones, and will not sell you one from their postpaid iPhone 3G inventory if they don't have stock of the prepaid iPhone 3G. Optus will email the iPhone's IMEI etc. to Apple, and within 10 days you will receive a SMS message confirming the iPhone has been registered for perpetual unlocking in the iTunes activation servers. You then perform a restore in iTunes and then your prepaid Optus iPhone 3G is unlocked. Optus has a steady business selling the prepaid contract-free unlocked iPhone 3Gs.

Cheers,

ITGuy

Hmm, that's interesting, as this is an email I got from them at the start of the year:

Optus said:
Dear Ivan

Thank you for your email.

At this present time Optus do not sell the iPhone outright or on a prepay basis.

Optus only offer this handset on a contract plan.

Kind regards

(Name)
Correspondence Team

I did just look on the Optus site, and it appears that they have started selling them prepaid; but it must have only been a very recent development.
My plan to get one would have been to get it unlocked as the only carrier I have here is Telstra.
 
bleh.
so they finally sell it unlocked, but i have to use something as sucko as T-Mobile if i want to make calls? i have plenty of friends that constantly gripe about TMobile and how they wish they would have never went with them.

um. i think i'll pass.

i seriously would buy an unlocked one if that wasn't the downside of it.

let me know when i can buy an Iphone and use Verizon as my provider, and have 3G.

other than the fact that they are selling it unlocked, it's pretty worthless news to me..

It's been mentioned already, but these iPhones are not being sold unlocked. They're being sold without the commitment to enter into an additional 2-year contract. The phones themselves will still only work out-of-the-box with AT&T SIM cards.

There's a common misunderstanding that bundled contract commitments and SIM locks are inexorably linked - that you cannot have one without the other. This may be true in some jurisdictions, but it is certainly not the case in the USA. SIM locks are common in many phones that are sold without any contract commitment.
 
4d87b0ae3154402270e6c6b057a252ca.png



No one else see this?
Theres a ten a five and 4 quarters inside the phone weighs less since the 8GB only has a 5 and 12 quarters:apple:
 
Live.com 35% cashback

Does ATT sell the no contract iPhone online? The reason I ask is because then we can take advantage of the 35% cashback and make it much more affordable.
 
The major reason iPhone is amazing is the data plan that enables the users to access the internet freely, right? So.. what is the point of having the $699 iPhone if you can't use the 3G network for safari surfing???
 
I remember dropping my jaw the first time the iPhone was released, but I think I've been thoroughly conditioned by Apple, because it didn't seem too bad getting the refurbbed 16GB for $199 w/a new 2year contract.
 
The major reason iPhone is amazing is the data plan that enables the users to access the internet freely, right? So.. what is the point of having the $699 iPhone if you can't use the 3G network for safari surfing???

who says you can't.

the only change in the game is that you basically paid the ETF up front. so you can quit ATT whenever you want.

my guess is that ATT was tired of losing the other $150 to resellers that were buying them on the lowest plan possible, cutting it on day 31 etc. now they get all the money out of them.

but it is still tied to ATT technically.

This little Nazi came up to me and started speaking in raised tones and repeated almost verbatim what someone above posted: "You can only get it if you are an existing att costumer to replace an existing iPhone that is broken and or lost. It cannot be used to start a new service with att thus you must purchase the 3G at the $199 price. the no contract phone can also be purchased to use as an add a line for a family talk."

he is sort of correct. if you are buying it for yourself you have to be on ATT and either replacing a broken/lost iphone or upgrading an eligible line. But you can buy it with no activation if it is as a gift. I asked at my local store.
if you wanted to be cute you could find it in writing, print it out and go try it again. heck ask for a manager and tell him/her about your first attempt. just avoid the words 'little nazi' or they might not take you seriously.
 
must get rid of stock.. cos the likelyhood of apple dropping prices - slim to none.. resellers in OZ take $5AUD off it and call it a bargin! Over here in France resellers still try sell old models for the same price and don't show new products..
 
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