Is Iphone bought in US going to work with an italian operator?

[kapalua]

Hi there I am Italian and would like to buy IPhone 3G here in NY. (In Italy it costs 599 Euros!!! They are crazy out there!!!).
Is it LOCKED or UNLOCKED?
Is it true that as soon as they activate it at the local (US) Apple store it gets LOCKED and I cannot use it in Italy with local operator?
Anybody can please help me with that? Is it true? What am I suppose to do?

 

[hexonxonx]

Hi there I am Italian and would like to buy IPhone 3G here in NY. (In Italy it costs 599 Euros!!! They are crazy out there!!!).
Unfortunately my friends told me that as soon as you purchase it they are going to activate it at the Apple store. As they activate it in the US it is not going to work in Itlay. Anybody can please help me with that? Is it true? What am I suppose to do?

Activation is required upon purchase.

 

[kapalua]

Activation is required upon purchase.

so no way out.....

 

[hexonxonx]

You can always sign the contract, cancel, pay the $175 early cancellation fee, then get charged the full price for the iPhone and then take it with you out of the country

It would probably equal the price you would pay in Italy or fairly close.

 

[dedalo]

???

Are you a tourist in NY?

If you do not have a Social Security Number (codice fiscale)
it is impossible you will be able even to sign a contract with AT&T.

Anyhow the phone is and will be LOCKED, so it seems in Italy they are not so crazy [I am Italian, btw, living in US].

I actually think that the Italian deal is even better than the US one, since
Italy is the only country (with Hong Kong) selling unlocked iphones 3G.

Probably it might work the other way around: buy an Italian iphone (which is
unlocked, by definition) and take it to NY. You will see that is highly possible people are wiling to pay much more than 500 Euros

Salutami il Bel Paese !

 

[ooo]

When I was in Italy with my friend, he had the original iphone / jailbroken and unlocked and it worked on the vodafone network without a problem. I don't see why a 3g one won't work if it is unlocked.

$200 + $175 = $375
conversion to euro

~ 238 euros

almost half the price

599 euros is ~$953. When I was in italy 1 euro was $1.42, now the it is rise to about 1 euro = $1.6.

 

[kapalua]

OOO> the Us one seems to be locked.... (as long as you activate it it gets locked)

 

[kis]

Hi there I am Italian and would like to buy IPhone 3G here in NY. (In Italy it costs 599 Euros!!! They are crazy out there!!!).
Is it LOCKED or UNLOCKED?
Is it true that as soon as they activate it at the local (US) Apple store it gets LOCKED and I cannot use it in Italy with local operator?
Anybody can please help me with that? Is it true? What am I suppose to do?

short answer: no.
long answer: nope.

And no - it's not true that it gets lockes "as soon as they activate it" - it was locked before that already. Apple sells locked ones directly to the providers.