Buying iPhone in the US and bringing it abroad

[AL3]

Hi guys,

I live in Brazil and iPhones are extremely expensive here. Also, the iPhone 4 wasn't even launched yet, and I was thinking of buying it when traveling abroad.

If I buy it in Europe unlocked, it will cost about 500€, which is still very expensive. So I was thinking about buying it in the US, and I'd like some advise on that.
My idea is to have an american friend of mine buy it regularly with the least-expensive at&t plan, then simply cancel the contract (and pay the fee required to cancel it), so that I can take the iPhone here with me.
Questions: how much does it cost, more or less, to do all this? I can't find this info anywhere.. and also, is there any info on how the hardware is gonna work outside the US? (Wi-fi, gps, cellular network, etc..)

We have decent 3G networks over here, but I'd use it MUCH more on wi-fi that anything else, so if the 3G network doesn't work perfectly, it's not an issue.

Thanks a lot in advance!!

 

[stridemat]

If you do this through a contract then you will have to buy yourself out of it. This will probably be more money than purchasing one as a Pay as you Go device straight from Apple. Your best bet would be to visit an Apple store an purchase an unlocked one.

 

[josielinnea]

My idea is to have an american friend of mine buy it regularly with the least-expensive at&t plan, then simply cancel the contract (and pay the fee required to cancel it), so that I can take the iPhone here with me.

You could do this. But you would only be able to use it with an AT&T simcard. The iphones sold in the US are locked only to AT&T, even if you cancel your plan the iphone is still locked to AT&T.

Buy it from the UK and have it shipped to you instead. Buying it from Apple in the UK will give you an unlocked phone so you can actually use it in Brazil or wherever you are and on whatever carrier you're on. It won't get cheeper than that anyway.

 

[AL3]

This will probably be more money than purchasing one as a Pay as you Go device straight from Apple. Your best bet would be to visit an Apple store an purchase an unlocked one.

you mean in an Apple store outside the US, right?
because I'm given to understand that they only sell locked ones there..

Buy it from the UK and have it shipped to you instead. Buying it from Apple in the UK will give you an unlocked phone so you can actually use it in Brazil or wherever you are and on whatever carrier you're on. It won't get cheeper than that anyway.

Ok, got it. do you happen to know the cheapest country to buy an unlocked one? I could do the research but the prices are not on apple-dot-"country" yet...

again, thanks a lot for the help