I want the new Iphone 5 but no point in queuing at the shop. I went through a few days after the launch of the 4S last year and the Apple store had them in but would only sell to contract users. So realistically I have to pre order sim free online. 
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No point in queuing if you want to buy sim free
- Thread starter gadget123
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UK.
Same in independent phone stores they only wan to sell you iphone on contract been that way since the 3GS.
Yeah, its always like that in Canada for major phone releases, except the iPhone. Apple will sell you contract free no problem so long as they have them in stock.
In the UK all phones use SIM cards, so the Term "SIM Free" implies that it is not locked to any network, and purchased directly from Apple.
I'm not sure if that is even possible in the US.
Apart from Everything Everywhere (Orange/T-Mobile). The other spectrums being auctioned by Ofcom (2600&800Mhz) dont look to be supported by the phone. Great.
Three only got 2x 15Mhz according to a story i read. Is that really enough to launch a fully fledged 4G network on the 1800Mhz spectrum?
Apple don't but the networks do. The employee earns more commission selling it on contract than that of pay as you go.
I've even had shops bare face lie when finding out I want it on payg from sorry the computers are down to all of a sudden it's gone from in stock to out of stock.
When I walked round to another shop in that chain I successfully bought an iPhone and The employee looked confused when I asked if their systems had been down a few minutes ago !
Yeah sorry. I quoted his second post but was referring to his original post about Apple stores turning him away.
People were selling 4S upgrades in the ad paper about £50 less but it was the wrong network.
As the Iphone 5 is a big change no doubt people will ask for too much for them on ebay ect..
Turns out that big UK cities may be in luck, with a planned roll-out in 17 cities by the end of the year:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipad-iphone/news/?newsid=3381055
The quote wasn't as to whether or not a fully fledged network could be made, but rather around the legal ramifications of advertising it as 4G like they did with the iPad.
EE and Three will be able to offer LTE service to the iPhone 5 as they have purchased operating space in the 1800Mhz range.
At the moment Vodafone and O2 won't be able to offer in that region even when OFCOM start to auction it off
Bit more reading here
Any idea if purchasing the phone "out of contract" by the end of October?
I'll be in the US at that time and would like to buy one unlocked, that I can bring back to use in Europe.
I'll be in the US at that time and would like to buy one unlocked, that I can bring back to use in Europe.
If last year is any indication, the official unlocked models will be out in a month or so. However, if you go into an Apple retail store and purchase an AT&T version at full price, it will be unlocked. Note that the AT&T versions do not support EU LTE frequencies. The Verizon versions do, but they are locked to Verizon.
Hmmm... no point in getting AT&T iPhone5 if one of it's key features, LTE, won't be usable in Europe. Any way to buy a verizon phone for "full price" and getting them to unlock it?
I believe if you are a customer of Sprint or Verizon after 90 days or so they will unlock the SIM slot, but only for non-US SIM cards. I don't know if you can buy a phone off contract from them and get the unlock like you can with AT&T, so Europeans looking to take advantage of our relatively lower prices may be out of luck unless they are OK with just having HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA support.
As for me, I mainly go with unlocked phones since I go overseas 1-2 times per year and don't want to pay $1.29/minute to call home. AT&T will actually sell 125MB of data for about $50 (or larger packages), which is enough to check e-mail on a weeklong trip, but I usually buy a €10-20 prepaid SIM if I can get a 500MB package along with a €0.10/minute voice plan (quite common among EU carriers). That gives me enough to check e-mail and access the web as much as I want during my trip and save the data. Perhaps it all works out even, but it's more the principle of the thing.
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