Have to say that as a card-carrying UK Labour party member, I am loving the implied European social democracy vs American neo-liberalism debate in this thread, even if slightly off-topic. 😀
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Apple Now Selling Unlocked iPhone 4 in U.S.
- Thread starter ChakaChaka
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bushido
Suspended
in germany it's cheaper to buy the unlocked phone if u know what ur doing
iPhone 4 - 16GB
Locked - TMobile
150 for the phone + 24 x 49 = 1.330
iPhone 4 - 16 GB
Unlocked - Apple
630 + Prepaid Flat Card (monthly cancellation) 20 x 24 =1.110
Price Difference 220 + higher resell value (due unlocked) and not locked into a 2 years plan
iPhone 4 - 16GB
Locked - TMobile
150 for the phone + 24 x 49 = 1.330
iPhone 4 - 16 GB
Unlocked - Apple
630 + Prepaid Flat Card (monthly cancellation) 20 x 24 =1.110
Price Difference 220 + higher resell value (due unlocked) and not locked into a 2 years plan
You can use the iphone on other carriers besides AT&T.
Hell, Cincinnati Bell in Ohio will GLADLY make you an iPhone specific plan (normally unlimited data and 1300 minutes for about 50/month WITH NO CONTRACT).... not sure how they do it, but they have offered this for me on multiple occasions.
Hell, Cincinnati Bell in Ohio will GLADLY make you an iPhone specific plan (normally unlimited data and 1300 minutes for about 50/month WITH NO CONTRACT).... not sure how they do it, but they have offered this for me on multiple occasions.
We also have weekend options and night options and favorite numbers options that give us roughly unlimited chat in restricted timeframes or with restricted numbers, and you can activate them by yourself from your cell phone whenever you want for a couple of euros. Regarding the minute and traffic roll-over, mine roll to the extent of 200%. 450 minutes of incoming+outgoing are a weeks work for me so you are paying basically $90 for 4 times less talking than I do when I pay less than EUR 20 (with taxes). Regardless of what I do I end up paying less in Europe by a few degrees of magnitude than in the states. It might be because in each country we have at least 4 3G operators, and competition brings out the best in them or it might be the regulation. I pay less than you and get HSPA+ coverage in 90% of the surface of the country, even on top of the mountain. You don't get decent 3G even in Frisco, LA or NY.
Regarding the unlimited, it's bull. Think of how much you're using before doing any stats. I chose 1.5G but I can go as high as 24GB/month if I am thinking of using tethering intensively. I'm quite sure that ATT would kill your bandwidth if you went anywhere close to those numbers.
Assuming I finish up my minutes, at most, I'm paying 0.07/min for an outgoing call only once the call connects with no other network usage taxes (like it was with Cingular, free calls but with a $0.25/min network usage charge). The amount should be roughly the same regardless who pays it. The advantage of free incoming minutes is that the callers can choose who pays for the call. Imagine a 7yr old with a prepaid. It might be simpler if the parents pay for the calls instead of him. He just has to ring them once (for free) and they can call him back!
Nothing about telecom is more expensive in Europe than in the states. For a 50Mbps cable internet connection you pay $120, while we pay 20-30 (with cable TV included).
Guess what, I have fiber connectivity with 100Mbps up/down at home for 10! How much would that cost at AT&T?
The telecom bills (cable, internet, landline, cells) for a family of 5 in California are close to $600 while in Europe they would be less than 200 even if you went with the most expensive contracts.
Chill and stop waving the american flag on topics where you guys are lacking. See http://www.netindex.com/download/allcountries/ for a list of AVERAGE internet speeds by country. Except for South Korea and Japan, all the other countries on top are EU countries. The US is on the 31st place and most countries above are part of the EU27. I was in charge of choosing the carrier for a company in both the States and EU and the states was a headache at 3-5 times the cost for landline, Internet and mobile.
ghostlyorb
macrumors 6502a
As someone who bought an unlocked iPhone in Germany two years ago and would never go back: What many people fail to notice is that the fact that you can equip an unlocked phone with any prepaid card you choose leads to increased competition. In the Us you don't get that, because the incompatible standards lock you in, no matter what. Maybe the iPhone 5 will remedy that, and then you would profit from carriers who actually have to work for their customers.
When I calculated the costs of locked and unlocked versions of the iPhone for two years of usage, I came up with pretty much the same numbers for both alternatives. But that was without including the resale value of the iPhone, which is pretty high. And you actually have the freedom to do with your phone what you want to do.
Oh, and regarding the "but you have to pay it all at once" problem: a) You don't, there are plenty of offers for payment in installments, and b) If I can't afford to pay for a toy when I buy it, I probably shouldn't buy it at all.
When I calculated the costs of locked and unlocked versions of the iPhone for two years of usage, I came up with pretty much the same numbers for both alternatives. But that was without including the resale value of the iPhone, which is pretty high. And you actually have the freedom to do with your phone what you want to do.
Oh, and regarding the "but you have to pay it all at once" problem: a) You don't, there are plenty of offers for payment in installments, and b) If I can't afford to pay for a toy when I buy it, I probably shouldn't buy it at all.
Karnivore
macrumors 6502
What does working for free have to do with locking unsibsidized phone? WTF kind of logic is that?
Give it a few weeks and you'll be seeing micro sims for iphones from several carriers who don't carry the iphone now.
Then these companies will entice people to sign up with them.
Good opportunity for Boost, T-Mobile (despite takeover) etc.
Does this mean that Amazon will now sell iPhones? I would love to save some taxes along the way (I'm not a U.S. Citizen).
0007776
Suspended
What European carrier charges that much per minute? I'm currently spending a year abroad in Eastern Europe, and my prepaid sim card gives me free calls to other people on the same network as long as I put the equivalent of five US dollars on a month, calling people on other networks in the same country costs about 12 cents a minute, if I want to call home to the US it costs about 25 cents a minute, and when I went to Turkey with it I could have used international roaming for 75 cents a minute. Plus I get free incoming calls and texts and 300MB of data for About 5 dollars a month, and if I need more there are different tiers going up to 10GB for a little less than $20. Maybe in the EU it costs a bit more but I'm pretty sure the US has some of the most expensive cell service you can get
Good news! Perhaps 
is hoping this will keep some iphone owners from jailbreaking their devices?
is hoping this will keep some iphone owners from jailbreaking their devices?
benhollberg
macrumors 68020
BenRoethig
macrumors 68030
Yep. The carrier picks up half to 2/3rds of the price if you agree to stay with them for two years.
Until you figure out that you can't find a carrier for the unlocked iPhone. AT&T is the only one with the compatible 3G bands and they really don't play ball with international travelers.
Its pretty much carrier in the singular (AT&T). T-Mobile and the small handful of regional GSM carriers on the unsupported band IV (AWS). Most of the legitimate competition is on CDMA which doesn't use sim cards. You won't see a europe like situation until A) laws are passed (which won't happens as long as the politicians are only worried about their own careers) and b) the LTE with voice transition is completed and all the US carriers use the same technology (and only assuming the LTE iphone will support all 14 bands)
For the time being, its paying more for the phone and paying the same for the plan.
Same situation as T-mobile. Japan uses bands VI, IX, and XI for data. Not supported on the unlocked iPhone. I'm pretty sure softbank had to have their own proprietary version since they use band IX.
Nope, unfortunately. AT&T's pay as you go service is not supported on the iPhone. There is a MVNO on AT&Ts network called H20 wireless which specializes in pay as you go and month to month, but you're not going to get 3G data. You're also going to want to check on the wireless coverage in the area you're going to be as GSM coverage can be rather spotty with a lot of places just getting 3G service late last year.
True, but they offer no plan discount for an unsubsidized phone. So you're paying double with the unsub phone.
Yes. There is no Federal sales tax (though there could legally be one on interstate purchases) and not enough room for the state base sales tax plus the local options (0-11.5%).
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bushido
Suspended
u don't have prepaid cards u could use? here u can get prepaid cards from discounter supermarkets for 20 with 2GB of data, text and call flat
maestrokev
macrumors 6502a
I always laugh when people parade around that list. There's 27 EU countries? With the exception of France, Germany, Italy and UK all the rest have the population of US cities. There's over 300million people in the US so the use of average is a joke. All that matters is how fast your connection in your city is. It's not like the countries with faster internet access win more Nobel awards or dominate the world economy 😉
Boost is a mix of CDMA and iDEN and is completely incompatible with the iPhone, and T-Mobile is only compatible with the iPhone if you want to use EDGE - no 3G.
So i just called the apple store 5th avenue in NYC and ask if they can unlock my iPhone 4 which i bought in September without contract and they didn't knew it at that point, the guy said i should call back soon, maybe tonight.
Does anybody of you know more?
Does anybody of you know more?
This is exactly what I want. A phone that's already a year old and close to the end of it's life cycle for the low low price of $649.
Apple needs to get off the crack. This is a horrible deal, unlocked or not. I get that it's cheaper than other countries but it was available since day one for that price and other countries are just getting ripped off even more than the US.
Apple needs to get off the crack. This is a horrible deal, unlocked or not. I get that it's cheaper than other countries but it was available since day one for that price and other countries are just getting ripped off even more than the US.
andiwm2003
macrumors 601
finally!
at 649.- + square trade insurance it's actually quite reasonable. I'm still using a 10 year old phone in europe for traveling. and I would have loved to be able to put a sim into my iphone in china to have internet there (or whatever counts as internet there give tyhe heavvy censoring).
at 649.- + square trade insurance it's actually quite reasonable. I'm still using a 10 year old phone in europe for traveling. and I would have loved to be able to put a sim into my iphone in china to have internet there (or whatever counts as internet there give tyhe heavvy censoring).
Yeah t-mobile only gets EDGE.
On the other hand, Cincinnati Bell will get full use of the iPhone on 3G... they are NO contracts with cincinnati bell and the plans are WAY cheaper (normally $20/month cheaper).
I MIGHT do this.
Again, NOT true... Cincinnati Bell. They are Ohio-based (obviously the city of cincinnati) but they use AT&T towers anywhere outside the city (so you actually get good coverage nation-wide).... well same as AT&T coverage.
maestrokev
macrumors 6502a
Very true, as you know until recently Rogers was the only GSM carrier in Canada. The only advantage to buying an unlocked iPhone was so you didn't need to jailbreak if travelling abroad and want to use a local SIM.