iPhone 3G Sim Lock. Is it Carrier or specific?

[megamanbnmaster]

Hi. I was wondering if anybody know if the original iPhone was locked by type or locked by account. I'm planning on getting an iPhone 3G, then canceling the service after a month and use my pay as you go prepay cards instead. My guess is that the lock would be same for both iPhones.

Also, does anybody know if the GPS requires edge/3g data or not? Thanks in advance!

 

[frosse]

Both iPhones are locked to a specific carrier.

Regular GPS does not need edge/gprs/3g data as it works with a satellite. Assisted GPS (aka A-GPS) does however need cellular data cover for the "Assisted" to work.

 

[philgilder]

they were locked to a carrier - so any AT&T sim should work

GPS does not need a data connection, as frosse said, but gmaps will need data to show where you are

 

[megamanbnmaster]

alright. Thanks!

now i'm not worried if theres trouble w/ unlocking the iphone since i can always go w/ prepay for att.

i really hate contracts...

is anybody else going to pull the same thing as i'm doing? like get it, pay for 1 month of service then pay for ETF to get a no contract phone?

 

[fishkorp]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

If its like first iPhone, the only way to get PAYG to work was to unlock or fail the credit check. A PAYG SIM won't work without unlocking.

As for GPS, with no data plan the maps can't load.

 

[emirates]

I was wondering about this too. I'm two months in to a UK O2 non-iphone contract and i'm currently using an XDA Orbit 2 which i'm not getting on with. I'm obviously a long way off an upgrade so was pleased to see the iphone 3G announced on Pay & Go.

We all know that the iphone 3G is going to be locked to the network but what if i took the sim out of an O2 Pay & Go iphone 3G and put in my O2 contract sim?

I know this can be done with other handsets. They can be locked to a specific network but they will accept that network's Pay & Go or contract sims.

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[philgilder]

A PAYG SIM won't work without unlocking.

it did for me in the uk...

I was wondering about this too. I'm two months in to a UK O2 non-iphone contract and i'm currently using an XDA Orbit 2 which i'm not getting on with. I'm obviously a long way off an upgrade so was pleased to see the iphone 3G announced on Pay & Go.

We all know that the iphone 3G is going to be locked to the network but what if i took the sim out of an O2 Pay & Go iphone 3G and put in my O2 contract sim?

I know this can be done with other handsets. They can be locked to a specific network but they will accept that network's Pay & Go or contract sims.

Anyone have any thoughts?

the iphone contract can be started at anytime, doesnt matter how long until your current contract runs out - afaik

and you will still need to activate the phone to allow the other contract sim to work

 

[megamanbnmaster]

hmm.
well activating isn't going to be a big deal. i'll be using the service for a month then canceling it and paying the ETF.

bleh. that sorta confuse me... maybe i shuld just get an iphone first gen... but thats gonna cost as much >_<