iphone from USA

Tech, TV, Mobile, Internet and Geek Corner
1
Hi

I want to buy an iphone as a xmas gift for my sister. And have seen on a website www.dhgate.com ...that they are being sold for approx. 180€.

Question is would it be compatible for using it over here ? and does anyone have experience of getting an iphone from abrod ?

Thanks

Istebraq

2
Hi

I just moved from the US to Switzerland 2 weeks ago. I bought an iPhone in the US with the intention of setting up service here in Switzerland. Well, to my surprise, it is not an option. That is to stay, in order to have service in US one must buy an iphone in the US, and visa versa. So now I have an iPhone with no service! Ugghhh!!!! The man at the Swisscom counter explained to me that exclusive contracts were sold to AT&T (US) and SwissCom(CH) so virtually impossibly to buy an iPhone without signinga contract for service. The US iPhone have been "jailbroken" (used with other service providers ie, Verizon, Sprint, etc..) but the Swiss IPhone rarely are jailbroken.

All in all, the best thing today is probably get a gift card for your sister from an Apple store or something.

I should probably sell my 16g 3GS as it is I am not able to use it as a phone but I do us the videocamera from time to time!

Nelle

3
Before you dump it, you might want to look at jailbreaking and unlocking it - this will free it up to work with any carrier.

I would be take the statement that Swiss iPhones are rarely jailbroken with a large pinch of salt. I know plenty of people on here have done it, and nearly everyone I know outside the forum has as well.

If you want to take the plunge there are tons of sites that can walk you through the process, plus video tutorials on Youtube. Have a quick look on Google and dive in. You can be pretty sure that anyone in Switzerland who bought a US iPhone from you would only go and do exactly the same thing!

4
My husband and I both bought iPhones in Australia and had the option to unlock them from our service providers before we left. There is no problem using them here.

My advice would be to make sure that the phone is legally unlocked before buying it. And as a side note, I lost mine in the mountains last week so if it works out let us know!

5
I had a similar question at the official Apple shop this year ("what if I want to use an iPhone I bought without contract at Swisscom with Sunrise?"). The answer was "you know there are ways to do it, but I am not allowed to tell you the details."

I for one know more people with jailbreaked iPhones than with "regular and legal" ones.