[mpeters]

The iPhone was released yesterday in S. Korea. Have any other expats managed to obtain one? I have been to a few stores and they keep telling me, "No foreigners. Only Koreans." Surely this must be wrong, right?

[turtle777]

WTF ? Talk to the manager.

Unless there are some requirements (like a certain credit score or credit history), there shouldn't be any reason for them to refuse to sell to you based on your expat status.

-t

[Andy8]

As long as you have a valid visa/resident card, should be no reason you can not get one if you are living in Korea legally.

[kismetcapitan]

what you got was the short answer, and boy do Koreans love giving short answers without any explanation.

The issue is not the iPhone, the issue is KT (Show). In order to get the iPhone, you have to contract for two years. KT will NOT allow any foreigners to sign a two-year phone contract, UNLESS you have a visa that expires more than two years away from the day when you're trying to buy your phone. So even F-4 (permanent resident) visa holders are SOL because we have to renew every two years.

So technically, if you have a visa that renews every two years, a couple days before your visa expires, go get it renewed. Then go to KT that same day and then you can sign a two-year contract.

SK has none of these shenanigans...but they are, in my opinion, the carrier that just rapes you with charges left and right. I've been with SK for seven years, due to the ease in which they will give me any phone I want. But somehow, no matter how much or how little I use my phone, my monthly bill comes out around $160. I very much look forward to getting my iPhone tomorrow and paying a flat $95 - I am by no means a heavy phone user, so I'm always puzzled by how $35 in phone calls adds up to $160 (well, $40 of that is paying for the phone divided up over two years).

I haven't heard of a buy-it-outright option, which may appear at some point (this is possible with other KT phones). In that case you pay all your cash up front and take home your iPhone. But that option didn't even appear in the States with AT&T until long after the release.

So.....wait until SK starts selling them. Or, and I'm sure this info will emerge in a couple weeks...other KT SIM cards may be swappable into an iPhone. So you buy an unlocked one on eBay and put in a KT SIM.

Or marry a Korean and have her buy it

My iPhone is in the mail, will show up tomorrow. I'd throw my stupid Samsung Windows smartphone into the Han River...but it cost $1100. So I've got to sell the damned thing.

[Andy8]

You of course, just pop over here to Hong Kong and buy a unlocked iPhone tax free anytime.

[odolan]

I am an American residing in Korea with now a visa with under 2 years on it. I do have Korean in-laws who will help me go through the hoops for the iPhone, but 2 questions:

Can I go to the U.S., get an iPhone sans the ATT contract, bring it to Korea and get the KT plan here?

Should I just stick with my current sucky SK service (see Kismetcaptan's post above), can I just get an iPod Touch sent to me and have the same access to apps?

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by odolan 

Can I go to the U.S., get an iPhone sans the ATT contract, bring it to Korea and get the KT plan here?

No, the AT&T iPhone is locked. Plus, you can not just buy an iPhone from AT&T w/o signing up for service.

-t

[moonmonkey]

Originally Posted by Andy8 

You of course, just pop over here to Hong Kong and buy a unlocked iPhone tax free anytime.

It's a bit warmer here too.

[kismetcapitan]

iPod Touch works fine here, you can buy apps and the Apple Store (without songs or TV shows) has been available here for quite awhile. If you have an US account, by rerouting your IP address, you can continue to buy songs and whatnot, although how that would affect your Korean iPhone when you try to sync up with the Korean-based iTunes, I have no idea.

Don't reset your iPhone btw, without turning it off first. I bricked my USIM that way and KT told me I had to shut down the phone, then plug it in, if I wanted to to a full restore.

Then there's the Skype/iPod Touch workaround. But you have to jailbreak the iPod to get Skype to run in the background, you can only use the wired headphones/mic, not a bluetooth headset, and then carry around a WiBro Egg (battery life of around 4 hours). And WiBro doesn't work indoors, not reliably anyways.

[kiwipenny]

KTF is pretty good~

I've been on a KTF plan for about 5 years now...I just rocked up to a KTF store one day and said I wanted a plan phone and the salesclerk said I just needed to show my ARC and it had to have at least 6months left on it... from that point I've just been changing plans and phones every year as I please~ They have been really good and provided a great service~
Suppose it just depends on what mood the staff are in ^^;;

It would help if you get a korean to go along with you though~
I manage fine but if there are complications I just call a Korean friend to help out~