Will my iPhone be ok with relocating to London?

November 5, 2007 11:43 AM

I'm moving to London next month from California and I'd love to take my iPhone with me. Is this going to work? Will I have to unlock it? Does Apple have any "official" position on this? I'd rather keep it above board in case the damn thing craps out on me while I'm over there.
posted by cubedweller to technology (11 comments total)

It's quad band so you'll be okay on that matter but if you want to get an Orange or other SIM card to use rather than your AT&T sim, yeah, you need to be unlocked.
posted by phearlez at 11:54 AM on November 5, 2007

Well, geez, did it occur to you to call AT&T? I mean, come on.
posted by koeselitz at 11:54 AM on November 5, 2007

I did call AT&T and they were suitably clueless and of very little help.
posted by cubedweller at 11:56 AM on November 5, 2007

Sorry, that's not very helpful, and I can see why you asked this.

What I would do: call AT & T and ask some vague but careful questions about how roaming works, and how much it costs. It appears that they do indeed cover England, but you might be paying a good deal. Check that out without committing to anything. Then vet out the possibility of switching SIM cards. I don't know if you're looking to save money, but if you are, I imagine you're going to want to switch SIM cards, which means, yes, you'll want to get it unlocked.
posted by koeselitz at 11:58 AM on November 5, 2007

When you called A T & T, did you ask about roaming charges in England? They should at least be able to quote you a per-minute price, which I imagine will be high. Right?
posted by koeselitz at 11:59 AM on November 5, 2007

Well, apparently, you really shouldn't go the roaming route.

So what I would do is get in touch with O2, the network that has UK rights to the IPhone, which will be launched on November 9 there. They'll probably be able to tell you whether you can port it in. It's a good question, really. I imagine they can do it, however.

Sorry I can't be more help, but that's all that's within reach of google, so far as I can tell.
posted by koeselitz at 12:16 PM on November 5, 2007

Here's what Mossberg had to say about roaming. Were I in your shoes, I'd point my iPhone at jailbreakme.com and then use AnySIM to unlock it.

Were I you, and not had my many and every-time painful interactions with AT&T over the last decade, I might call AT&T and try to get them to legitimately unlock the thing, though I don't know of anyone doing that successfully. I'd also ask you, what exactly is going to happen to your AT&T account when you move? You're under a 2 year contract - are you planning on just paying the $200 cancellation fee?
posted by phearlez at 12:19 PM on November 5, 2007

The iPhone will be coming out here on O2 in four days. Who knows if the iPhone is a traditional SIM lock - it may be able to work on O2 as well. If the roaming charges are too high for you, you may also want to consider simply buying an iPhone over here as well.

I should also say that I'm here on a study abroad, and I have seen a few Americans (and one or two Brits) with iPhones, which certainly aren't being sold here yet, which means they're paying AT&T roaming. It may be quite expensive, but it's inexpensive enough that people actually do it.
posted by awesomebrad at 12:20 PM on November 5, 2007

I was just in London last weekend and watched a friend of mine using his unlocked phone on O2. It can be done, but it took him (a very computer- and phone-savvy guy) about 5 hours to finish the unlocking process.
posted by olinerd at 12:45 PM on November 5, 2007

Apple is completely inflexible when it comes to iPhone support and unlocking. If you want a supported iPhone with a warranty and regular software updates, you will need to buy a new iPhone from O2 when you get to London.

You could attempt to throw yourself on the mercy of AT&T and Apple and see if somebody will provide you with an official unlock code for your phone, but it is unlikely you'll get one (AT&T, however, will offer to unlock some other AT&T phone if you've got one you had before you got the iPhone -- I unlocked my previous phone without any difficulty at all). AT&T claims not to have any unlock codes for iPhones at all.

Also as phearlez pointed out, you've got a two year contract with AT&T. How do you plan to get out of that?

If you don't mind being unsupported, you can unlock your existing iPhone yourself, but once you do that you can't update the software until each new version gets cracked.
posted by fedward at 1:41 PM on November 5, 2007

just FYI -- the iPhone carrier in Germany will be T-Mobile. Why it won't be in the UK is beyond me.
posted by laconic titan at 3:25 PM on November 5, 2007