International Iphone usage

[slee8251]

Greetings,

I will be traveling to Switzerland to study abroad. I want to get ONESIMCARD which provides relatively cheap rates. I want to buy an iphone and unlock it before i leave. my question is though if anyone knows if 3G coverage will work in Switzerland if I buy a 3G or 3GS iphone. If it is not supported, I would rather buy the 2G iphone to save a little money on purchasing the phone itself. THanks for you help and input

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FYI: I am from the US

 

[Spectrum Abuser]

Well the title was a little misleading for me. I was picturing a result of iPhone data usage from around the globe. But as for the actual topic. If I'm not mistaken Switzerland does not have an Edge network to begin with. So all you are going to get is GPRS and 3G.

 

[kis]

Well the title was a little misleading for me. I was picturing a result of iPhone data usage from around the globe. But as for the actual topic. If I'm not mistaken Switzerland does not have an Edge network to begin with. So all you are going to get is GPRS and 3G.

Yes, you're mistaken. There are three providers in Switzerland - Swisscom, Sunrise and Orange. Swisscom and Sunrise have 3G / HSDPA+ networks in large areas of Switzerland. In the areas without 3G, both have EDGE networks. Orange only have GPRS outside their somewhat limited 3G coverage now but they're building an EDGE network as well - it'll become available 2012.

My advice to the OP: just get a new IPhone here with a Swiss contract - all three carriers here have the iPhone.


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[kis]

@slee8251 - you might also want to check out englishforum.ch , there are tons of threads about phones and contracts there


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[old-wiz]

If you plan to buy a new iPhone don't expect to be able to unlock it. Unlocking has become more and more difficult as Apple patches up the holes. If you really need an iPhone be sure to just buy an unlocked iPhone rather than try to unlock it yourself.