Buying a unlocked iphone

[Mattitude]

Right basically with xmas coming up and all that my dads gf has come to me seeking advice about getting a iphone for my dad. She cant just walk into O2 and buy one as he is on a company contract with O2 and the company wont pay £260 for the phone, so she wants to get one "sim free" which to my knowledge does not excist right now.

I do know that you can get the iphone unlocked and i have looked on ebay and seen many of these phones on there. Now is it really going to be so easy that come xmas day he opens up the iphone clips in hes current O2 sim card and everything will work?

I mean email, GPS, calls and texts? will he get unlimited internet usage? even with a sim card which didnt come with the phone?

This is all going on a fully unlocked iphone already activated.

 

[Mattitude]

Yea thats what i thought but apparently she went into O2 and well sometimes i guess you get a muppet who dont know what hes talking about who spoke to her talking about the activation process which right now i cant even remember what it was all about but basically O2 said they cant sell the phone alone as it has to be sold with a new contract and as my dad has a contract she walked away. Only concern i have is she will buy this phone and he will start looking at websites not on a free wi-fi and using the o2 network and run up a bill.

so basically if she goes to O2 buys the phone he will technically be able to activate it using hes current sim and have unlimited useage? or will she have to change hes current contract to some iphone tarriff?