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iPhone 4 - Purchase Locked or Unlocked

VanMac

VanMac

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 26, 2005
914
0
Rampaging Tokyo
Hey.

I'm looking to purchase an iPhone 4. I am a Telus customer in Canada.

My current contract is up, so I can buy it unlocked direct for Apple if I like.

However, Telus is offering some perks if I sign up for a 3 yr contract. Subsidized price, bonus minutes, long distance deal, voicemail 10

I'm pretty happy with Telus, but dislike contracts in general.

So, is it better to go unlocked and have some flexibility, or sign away and get some discounts?

Any input appreciated.
 
If you plan on staying with them for a while then get it under contract and get the perks and save some money.
If you want to be able to switch carriers any time get an unlocked iphone.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

I say go for unlocked. You have much more power in getting a good contract and you can shop around.

Also three years is long time! Can you really stick with the iPhone 4 for three years? Can it even last three years?

Think about it. By the time you finish the iPhone contract we might be on the iPhone 7!
 
Depends on several considerations. What is the subsidized price of the phone with the contract? What other carriers are available where you live and plan to use your phone? Do you plan to do much traveling outside of the coverage area for your provider during the next 3 years?
 
SnowDX said:
What province are you in and what's their full retention plan offer to you?

(I'm with Telus and have an unlocked iPhone from Apple)
Click to expand...

Here is the offer I have from Telus if I sign up for a contract.

I would go with the Voice and Data 65 - Double minutes option.

Additional perks below:
- 32GB iPhone 4 for $269
- Early nights and weekends - free
- Caller ID - free
- 50 Bonus minutes - free
- VoiceMail 10 - free
- Nationwide Calling - $15 (turns all minutes in LD minutes)

So, pretty decent deal I guess, but let me know what you guys think.

I like the idea of being unlocked, and I dont mind paying full price for the phone. It's just some of these monthly features I would like, so to have to have them thrown in would be nice......
 
VanMac said:
Here is the offer I have from Telus if I sign up for a contract.

I would go with the Voice and Data 65 - Double minutes option.

Additional perks below:
- 32GB iPhone 4 for $269
- Early nights and weekends - free
- Caller ID - free
- 50 Bonus minutes - free
- VoiceMail 10 - free
- Nationwide Calling - $15 (turns all minutes in LD minutes)

So, pretty decent deal I guess, but let me know what you guys think.

I like the idea of being unlocked, and I dont mind paying full price for the phone. It's just some of these monthly features I would like, so to have to have them thrown in would be nice......
Click to expand...
There's no texting in that plan? Do you need it? Do you need VM 10? or could you live with 3? (sounds like you do more calling so may need 10) Do you need every feature they are offering you?

This is what I have now:

$50
1GB data
6pm nights/weekends
350 mins.
VM 3
Fave 5 nationwide
Unlimited texting (I could have chosen double minutes, but the texting was more useful to me)
Caller ID

Negotiated a couple weeks ago, mid-contract. But I did start with a good promotional plan in my province and asked them to add in some freebies. To be honest though, I think you can do better, especially for being locked in for another 3 years. I'd try to get visual voicemail and unlimited texting thrown in as well. Some of the problem is, that the base plan you're starting with isn't that great, so they take that and add features and act like they're doing you a favour.

Is this new $65 plan (+$15 for nationwide minutes) MORE $ than what you're currently spending with them? If so, you likely have some bargaining power without signing a contract, which could mean you get the unlocked phone (if that's what you want) and some additional features.
 
SnowDX said:
There's no texting in that plan? Do you need it? Do you need VM 10? or could you live with 3? (sounds like you do more calling so may need 10) Do you need every feature they are offering you?

This is what I have now:

$50
1GB data
6pm nights/weekends
350 mins.
VM 3
Fave 5 nationwide
Unlimited texting (I could have chosen double minutes, but the texting was more useful to me)
Caller ID

Negotiated a couple weeks ago, mid-contract. But I did start with a good promotional plan in my province and asked them to add in some freebies. To be honest though, I think you can do better, especially for being locked in for another 3 years. I'd try to get visual voicemail and unlimited texting thrown in as well. Some of the problem is, that the base plan you're starting with isn't that great, so they take that and add features and act like they're doing you a favour.

Is this new $65 plan (+$15 for nationwide minutes) MORE $ than what you're currently spending with them? If so, you likely have some bargaining power without signing a contract, which could mean you get the unlocked phone (if that's what you want) and some additional features.
Click to expand...

You got a pretty decent deal. So, you did this mid contract, and did not have to sign up for a new contract, and got the unlocked phone? Are you still under existing contract?

This new plan they are offering will be about what I'm spending now. There is no texting, as I would rather have the minutes, and I dont really text anyways.

There is really only 3 base plans to work with, at least in Ontario...
 
VanMac said:
You got a pretty decent deal. So, you did this mid contract, and did not have to sign up for a new contract, and got the unlocked phone? Are you still under existing contract?
Click to expand...
Unlocked phone from Apple and initially I kept it on our original family share plan without data. I called in and spoke to a loyalty rep and asked if I switched us to higher priced plans, would they be willing to throw in caller ID for all 3 numbers and some bonus minutes and they said okay. Thing is, in the end the total was Only $20 more which accounts for the data I added and we all have a way better plan because now we have unlimited texting (2 plans had 30 outgoing prior and one had a 1000), 6pm evngs/winds (prior had 9pm), fave 5 nationwide (didn't have this before) and 50 minutes more for each phone.

None of our contracts changed, there is still 20 months left in 2 of them and 8 months left on the other. My husband is now getting an unlocked iPhone as well so I called again and switched him to the voice & data like me ($50 vs the $3o voice only). Once our contracts end, we'll still have these good plans so I won't fel pressured if they try to get us to sign new contracts (which we're not likely to).
 
SnowDX said:
Unlocked phone from Apple and initially I kept it on our original family share plan without data. I called in and spoke to a loyalty rep and asked if I switched us to higher priced plans, would they be willing to throw in caller ID for all 3 numbers and some bonus minutes and they said okay. Thing is, in the end the total was Only $20 more which accounts for the data I added and we all have a way better plan because now we have unlimited texting (2 plans had 30 outgoing prior and one had a 1000), 6pm evngs/winds (prior had 9pm), fave 5 nationwide (didn't have this before) and 50 minutes more for each phone.

None of our contracts changed, there is still 20 months left in 2 of them and 8 months left on the other. My husband is now getting an unlocked iPhone as well so I called again and switched him to the voice & data like me ($50 vs the $3o voice only). Once our contracts end, we'll still have these good plans so I won't fel pressured if they try to get us to sign new contracts (which we're not likely to).
Click to expand...

Nice.
My contract was up last year, so I've just been going monthly with my existing plan.

I called Telus today to see if they would still give me on a month-month basis what they've offered me under a new contract if I were to get new iPHone as a 'gift' from a family member. They pretty much declined the whole idea.

If I get an unlocked phone from Apple, telus will only offer me whatever is part of their standard plan. No freebies. They said they would still offer me the NationWide calling for $15 instead of $40, but no free caller idea, vm10, early evenings, etc. Kind of a bummer. Been a customer since 2002 and spent lots of money with them.... I can see how you need to sign up for 3 years to get the subsidized phone, but other perks should really be made available to long term customers that are willing to stay on.
 
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