[Spook E]

Thinking of picking up an iPhone of ebay for use here in Australia, and hope some peeps can fill me in on a couple of things:

1. Can i just buy an iphone like you'd buy an iPod? What was the deal with people having to pay a $130 cancelation fee to AT&T?

2. Once i have the iPhone and use the unlocking software, will it connect to iTunes ok, or will it say "hold on, your not in the US, no love for you?"

3. Do all the apps work outside of the US? will i be able to use youTube / google earth over wifi?

4. And the biggest worry, will the iPhone try and connect to my cell provider (Telstra) and use it for data, costing me a mozza, or can i restrict it to only use data when in a wifi zone?

Thanks in advance!

[Cold Warrior]

[QUOTE=Spook E;3490209]1. Can i just buy an iphone like you'd buy an iPod? What was the deal with people having to pay a $130 cancelation fee to AT&T?/

Cancellation fees are charged by the provider one leaves, not AT&T, if one is still under contract with the provider. If your contract is up, you're free to leave without a cancellation fee.
4. And the biggest worry, will the iPhone try and connect to my cell provider (Telstra) and use it for data, costing me a mozza, or can i restrict it to only use data when in a wifi zone?

This link says a coming update will let you turn off EDGE. iPhone firmware 1.1.1 will sport video out, ability to turn off EDGE roaming, more – iPhone Atlas

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

This link says a coming update will let you turn off EDGE. iPhone firmware 1.1.1 will sport video out, ability to turn off EDGE roaming, more – iPhone Atlas

No, that link says a coming update will let you turn off EDGE *ROAMING*.

[Cold Warrior]

Hmm...well then, he may be SOL if he can't get an AUS plan with cheap or unlimited data. Maybe there's a hack to turn off EDGE when not roaming.

[analogika]

I believe that was his question.

(and the current answer, AFAIK, is "no, no way to turn off EDGE data access")

[Andy8]

Disable iPhone's EDGE/GPRS without calling AT&T

[michaelb]

Originally Posted by Spook E 

Thinking of picking up an iPhone of ebay for use here in Australia, and hope some peeps can fill me in on a couple of things:

I'm in Australia and I've had an iPhone since June 29, and on air since August, so I'm well suited to answering your questions.

Originally Posted by Spook E 

1. Can i just buy an iphone like you'd buy an iPod?

Yes. There are many ways to buy it:

• If you're visiting the US, walk into an Apple Store. Done. (Not an AT&T store, they want ID and a credit check.)
• EBay. Check feedback, make sure seller is familiar with international shipping. No import duty (GST) up to $1000 coming into Australia, so the iPhone is well under the limit. USPS costs about $45 USD. FedEx costs about $90.
• Friends in the US. Great solution.
• Business trip: Saves freight!
• Holiday stopover. There are two Apple Stores in Hawaii...

Originally Posted by Spook E 

What was the deal with people having to pay a $130 cancelation fee to AT&T?

If someone has already signed up to a multi-year phone contract, there is an exit fee. I think it's more like $175 for AT&T's iPhone plan. Moral: don't sign up in the first place.

Originally Posted by Spook E 

2. Once i have the iPhone and use the unlocking software, will it connect to iTunes ok, or will it say "hold on, your not in the US, no love for you?"

After using iActivator or iNdependence (software from the iPhone Dev Team), iTunes is just fine. Syncs perfectly.

Originally Posted by Spook E 

3. Do all the apps work outside of the US? will i be able to use youTube / google earth over wifi?

Yes, yes, and yes.

(Google Maps works very well over EDGE too.) About the only thing an unlocked iPhone lacks is Visual Voicemail (you can still use Telstra's MessageBank).

Originally Posted by Spook E 

4. And the biggest worry, will the iPhone try and connect to my cell provider (Telstra) and use it for data, costing me a mozza, or can i restrict it to only use data when in a wifi zone?

If you want to make sure the iPhone doesn't access EDGE until you have a data plan ready, just enter some dummy text in the APN field, eg,

Go to: Settings > General > Network > EDGE

Enter a "dummy" APN: abc.xyz

(Other instructions floating around, including futzing with .plist entries, were for firmware versions earlier than 1.0.2. It's now very easy to turn EDGE on and off just by doing the above.)

Data works fine on Telstra, in fact they are the only ones with EDGE. Optus and Vodafone and affiliates have GPRS, which works okay with the iPhone, but is about half the speed.

To set it up, go to: Settings > General > Network > EDGE

Enter the APN: telstra.internet

Yes, Telstra's casual data rate costs a pretty penny at 2.2c/KB (that's over $20 per megabyte!)

However, all post-paid and pre-paid Telstra plans can have data packs added to them, which include a specified amount of data. These work out much more economically. The relevant prices are:

$16: 10MB / month
$29: 70MB / month
$59: 200MB / month

Originally Posted by Spook E 

Thanks in advance!

No worries! Hope you join the rapidly growing band of Aussie iPhone owners soon. We should start a group.

[Spook E]

Thanks MichaelB! Awesome answers

I found an ebay seller that looks good, great feedback and has shipped a lot of iPhones to happy customers recently.

I was going to get and iPod Touch, but this seems to suit me better, might just wait to see what apple does with the update later in the week before i pull the trigger though.

I'd be up for getting in on an aussies group, i've always thought we should have our own thread in the lounge, a lot of other forums have them and their a great place to hang out and talk about the important things in life, like cricket

[nickh]

Originally Posted by michaelb 

I'm in Australia and I've had an iPhone since June 29, and on air since August, so I'm well suited to answering your questions.





Yes. There are many ways to buy it:

• If you're visiting the US, walk into an Apple Store. Done. (Not an AT&T store, they want ID and a credit check.)
• EBay. Check feedback, make sure seller is familiar with international shipping. No import duty (GST) up to $1000 coming into Australia, so the iPhone is well under the limit. USPS costs about $45 USD. FedEx costs about $90.
• Friends in the US. Great solution.
• Business trip: Saves freight!
• Holiday stopover. There are two Apple Stores in Hawaii...

If someone has already signed up to a multi-year phone contract, there is an exit fee. I think it's more like $175 for AT&T's iPhone plan. Moral: don't sign up in the first place.



After using iActivator or iNdependence (software from the iPhone Dev Team), iTunes is just fine. Syncs perfectly.



Yes, yes, and yes.

(Google Maps works very well over EDGE too.) About the only thing an unlocked iPhone lacks is Visual Voicemail (you can still use Telstra's MessageBank).



If you want to make sure the iPhone doesn't access EDGE until you have a data plan ready, just enter some dummy text in the APN field, eg,

Go to: Settings > General > Network > EDGE

Enter a "dummy" APN: abc.xyz

(Other instructions floating around, including futzing with .plist entries, were for firmware versions earlier than 1.0.2. It's now very easy to turn EDGE on and off just by doing the above.)

Data works fine on Telstra, in fact they are the only ones with EDGE. Optus and Vodafone and affiliates have GPRS, which works okay with the iPhone, but is about half the speed.

To set it up, go to: Settings > General > Network > EDGE

Enter the APN: telstra.internet

Yes, Telstra's casual data rate costs a pretty penny at 2.2c/KB (that's over $20 per megabyte!)

However, all post-paid and pre-paid Telstra plans can have data packs added to them, which include a specified amount of data. These work out much more economically. The relevant prices are:

$16: 10MB / month
$29: 70MB / month
$59: 200MB / month



No worries! Hope you join the rapidly growing band of Aussie iPhone owners soon. We should start a group.

Hi, Can anyone help me install vodafone setting for GRPS..Is this possiable?? i have tried changing the Settings>>GENERAL>EDGE>APN> replacing it with vfinternet.au and leaving the rest blank.( i purchased the iphone of ebay brand new and unlocked, at a guess i would say AT&T/EDGE were never activated) With these settings in i try to connect but only get an error message saying "Could not activate EDGE:You are not subscribed to EDGE" where can i go from here??

Any help would greatly be appreciated.
Nick

[nickh]

Hi, Can anyone help me install vodafone setting for GRPS..Is this possiable?? i have tried changing the Settings>>GENERAL>EDGE>APN> replacing it with vfinternet.au and leaving the rest blank.( i purchased the iphone of ebay brand new and unlocked, at a guess i would say AT&T/EDGE were never activated) With these settings in i try to connect but only get an error message saying "Could not activate EDGE:You are not subscribed to EDGE" where can i go from here??

Any help would greatly be appreciated.
Nick

[Spook E]

sorry i can't help you out (waiting to see if 1.1.1 can be jailbreaked before i dive in and get one), but try the whirlpool.net.au forums, they have heaps of iphone info over there.