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how to buy the iphone 3g

K

KEEWEEMAN-APE

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 14, 2007
12
0
i have been looking into buying an iphone 3g for some time however i am some what confused as to what the steps are for buying it and then canceling the contract to use on T-mobile. I know that the 3g has not been unlocked yet through software so i wont be able to use it with t-mobile yet, however i am confused with the steps for buying it. i would really appreciate it if someone was to explain to me the steps and the prices such as cancellation of the contract. And when there is a software way to unlock it how safe is it? Is it better to buy a sim unlock? Any help would be much appreciated. Also i have had some experience unlocking before as i have a 16 gb ipod touch gen1. Thank you.:p
 
KEEWEEMAN-APE said:
i have been looking into buying an iphone 3g for some time however i am some what confused as to what the steps are for buying it and then canceling the contract to use on T-mobile. I know that the 3g has not been unlocked yet through software so i wont be able to use it with t-mobile yet, however i am confused with the steps for buying it. i would really appreciate it if someone was to explain to me the steps and the prices such as cancellation of the contract. And when there is a software way to unlock it how safe is it? Is it better to buy a sim unlock? Any help would be much appreciated. Also i have had some experience unlocking before as i have a 16 gb ipod touch gen1. Thank you.:p
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Once your contract with T-Mobile is over(assuming you want the same phone number) you go to AT&T and port the number, pay the 199$-299$ iPhone price, and set up a data plan for 30$ plus the cheapest phone plan-40$, which is 70$. If you're contract is not up with T-Mobile, then you pay the ~170$ EFT charge for cancelling the contract. You should not use a SIM unlock. it is illegal. and by the way, you can't unlock the iPod Touch. you can only jailbreak it :D
 
well im on a family plan with.....my family:p so leaving t-mobile is not an option for me. i would like to just get the iphone and use on t-mobile. i think that i get what i would need to do. i would pay $199.99 for the phone(8gb), then $70 for activation and 1st month's pay and $170 for cancellation of the contract. then that would be $440 plus tax which would doesnt seem to be sweetening the deal.
oh and i know that you can unlock the ipod, i meant to say jailbreak i jst got too caught up in the moment:D
 
Look, you can't use the iPhone 3G on T-Mobile yet, plain and simple.

And you can't buy the iPhone 3G without signing an AT&T contract.
 
why cant the iphone be used with t-mobile, they have 3g network. oh and im talking after they release unlocking software.
 
At&t has an exclusive deal with apple. Five years with three left IIRC. Earlier iPhones have been unlocked but the baseband on the 3g has not, yet.
 
yeah but you can unlock it. well not yet but i mean eventually just as they unlocked the first iphone
 
or am i just better off buying the iphone 1g off ebay new than going through these steps? the thing i only have about 400-450 dollars and dont think that i can afford the 3g. is there any real benefit to the 3g over the first generation other than 3g speed?
 
Yeah I edited that in but probably while you were posting. Darn me and my slow iPhone typing :).
 
lol, i see now. well then i will probably go with the first gen iphone. i wont really be using the 3g connection and the gps. My parents probably wont pay for the plan and i have my brother next to me in the car to tell me where to go. thanks alot for the info. oh and i have got to say you guys are a whole lot more helpful than the guys at the ipodtouchfan.com forums:D
 
If I remember correctly, you pay for the phone when you buy it and that's it. So just $199 + tax out of pocket at the at&t or apple store (8gb). Then you pay your first month and the activation fee on your first bill (sometimes the first two months if you're at the end of a billing cycle when you buy). The minimum iPhone contract is $70 a month and then the activation fee is $36 I believe, so you pay a total of a little over $300 to get an 8 gb iPhone (if you don't have an at&t contract already) but only $200 and tax at the time of purchase.
 
. . .

KEEWEEMAN-APE said:
or am i just better off buying the iphone 1g off ebay new than going through these steps? the thing i only have about 400-450 dollars and dont think that i can afford the 3g. is there any real benefit to the 3g over the first generation other than 3g speed?
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For one, there's GPS.
 
The 3g network is different with t-mobile so even with an unlocked phone you won't be able to use it. It would still be on edge. Better off sticking to your 1st gen.
 
efice32 said:
If I remember correctly, you pay for the phone when you buy it and that's it. So just $199 + tax out of pocket at the at&t or apple store (8gb). Then you pay your first month and the activation fee on your first bill (sometimes the first two months if you're at the end of a billing cycle when you buy). The minimum iPhone contract is $70 a month and then the activation fee is $36 I believe, so you pay a total of a little over $300 to get an 8 gb iPhone (if you don't have an at&t contract already) but only $200 and tax at the time of purchase.
Click to expand...

Plus, if you never actually intend to keep AT&T's service after you've purchased the phone, then you should factor AT&T's early termination fee into your budget.

It's been stated that would be illegal to unlock your iPhone... Well, the point is moot for the time being because nobody's discovered a hack yet which would allow you do do it.

Even if it were possible, the fact is that doing so almost certainly would not result in any charges being brought against you. If you keep on paying your monthly bills to AT&T in compliance with your contract, they will keep on getting their revenue so they won't care what happens to the phone. And if you sever your ties with AT&T in compliance with their early termination policy, they would no longer have any claim against you. And at least for the next several months, Copyright law in the USA specifically permits circumvention of digital locks for the purpose of making a wireless phone compatible with a different network.

However, you would lose all warranty support for the iPhone and any damage or bricked phones that result from an unsuccessful unlocking attempt, or from any future incompatibilities between the hacked phone and future OS updates, will be totally your own responsibility - Apple will not be obliged to provide any repairs or compensation.

All that being said, it has been shown that a TurboSim method does work for the iPhone 3G. By this method, as far as the iPhone is concerned, it is still locked to AT&T. However, hackers who claim to know about these things say that one of the effects of a TurboSim unlock is that it causes the iPhone to broadcast fraudulent network sign on information over the air (ie. data that doesn't match either the original AT&T network sign on, or the new 3rd party network sign on), which in many countries is illegal, independently of the act of actually unlocking the phone itself.
 
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