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Will 1st Gen iPhone owners be allowed to buy a 3G iPhone?

S

sowlerrmgh

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 26, 2004
67
0
Considering all the original contracts with at&t and O2 have not run out, will people be allowed to upgrade to 3G?

I also imagine that upgrading to 3G will mean the phone companies will have to give out a new sim card that is compatible with 3G. How will they go about doing this?
 
sowlerrmgh said:
Considering all the original contracts with at&t and O2 have not run out, will people be allowed to upgrade to 3G?

I also imagine that upgrading to 3G will mean the phone companies will have to give out a new sim card that is compatible with 3G. How will they go about doing this?
Click to expand...

No. Unfortunately, as part of their original Terms and conditions, any person with either has to sit out of buying one this year, to let other people try the iPhone for themselves. They do get a nice shiny Samsung Instinct though if they want. ;)
They go in, say I wantz iPhone 3Gness plz, and they give you a new phone, a new contract. The SIM is already 3G compatible afaik. You may even behold the might and magic of the Apple paperclip.
 
why not?

why wouldnt they. I'm a Verizon customer and I can buy a new phone at anytime. (regardless of whether my 2 year contract is up or not) The only difference is that I am not eligible for free/discounted phones.

I'm guessing if u buy a 3G iphone, ur 2 year contract might restart from the day u purchase ur new phone. at&t only cares that you stay a customer for a minimum of 2 years....not so much on how mant phones you go through during those 2 years.
 
you might be looking at extending your contract another 2years/18 months from the date of purchase, but i HIGHLY doubt that they'll make you sit out until the 18months is up.. they'll want to keep you as long as possible.
 
Don't know about AT&T, but you can upgrade with O2. The question was asked by a lot of folks when the iPhone was first released, and it's simply a question of getting a new iPhone and moving your account to it. Also clarified when some people upgraded to the 16GB iPhone.
Of course it has a catch - the 18 month contract will start from scratch again.
 
Piarco said:
Don't know about AT&T, but you can upgrade with O2. The question was asked by a lot of folks when the iPhone was first released, and it's simply a question of getting a new iPhone and moving your account to it. Also clarified when some people upgraded to the 16GB iPhone.
Of course it has a catch - the 18 month contract will start from scratch again.
Click to expand...

+1

Why couldn't you walk into an Apple store, buy one, go through Itunes and set up that phone as a new device?
 
You'll be able to by a new iPhone any time a new version is released. You might not be eligible for any subsidies, IF there are any, unless you are within your service providers normal time-frame for an upgrade, but you can definitely buy one full-price anytime you want.
 
I actually had a bit of a problem a while ago when I asked O2 about selling my iPhone. Here's what I found out.

- Despite what they might tell you, it IS possible to sell your iPhone. All this stuff they tell you about the new user not being able to activate or whatever is rubbish. The guy I spoke to had been 'trained' for iPhone support, and thought you couldn't de-activate the phone. After a lot of calls, I spoke to the head of the 'iPhone department', who said that they've been trained wrongly.

- If you have O2 Insurance, you'll need to start a new contract to insure your new iPhone. That probably means restarting your existing contract and having an 18 month commitment from 3G iPhone release date. I don't know if they'll insure imported models (in case its not a simultaneous global launch).

- O2 Insurance have their own iPhone stock, separate from the retail division. If you were hoping your iPhone would get 'accidentally lost' on the tube, and you'd get a swanky 3G model in return, think again. I don't know if O2 insurance has been giving their stock to retail since the -£100 offer started. It's possible they're out of EDGE iPhones. Oh, and the insurance terms only specify that they have to replace it with a 'similar' phone. So now that the EDGE iPhone has EoL-ed (and isn't being made anymore), you're unlikely to get an actual iPhone as replacement should yours actually fall under the insurance's coverage. A court case waiting to happen? You bet.
 
Yes, for the full price. As far as the person mentioning a 3G SIM card, the one that came with my phone has a 3G logo on it, so I doubt that would be an issue.

As far as getting one if the carriers subsidize the cost, doubt you can get it while under contract. That's how every other phone on the planet works.
 
I heard Apple was hiring some really burly men to guard the registers, thus keeping any current iPhone owners from purchasing a 3G model. :D
 
So then what's "full price" for an iPhone?

As far as I'm aware, no one's ever had to pay "full price" for one...
 
Michael CM1 said:
Yes, for the full price. As far as the person mentioning a 3G SIM card, the one that came with my phone has a 3G logo on it, so I doubt that would be an issue.

As far as getting one if the carriers subsidize the cost, doubt you can get it while under contract. That's how every other phone on the planet works.
Click to expand...

But this is not every other phone on the market......this is the iPhone!!
 
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