iphone 3G without contract, is it possible?

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I am moving country in 6 months, so obviously not going to fork out for an 18 month contract. I want a 3G iphone and PAYG doesn't arrive in UK until near Xmas... any way I can get around this?
 
Not yet.

Unless you want to pay a stupid price for one on eBay, but then you will still have to use an O2 SIM for it to work.
 
Im interested in this to. Im not sure if its as easy as forking out £500 for one on ebay and waiting for them to get unlocked as they need to be activated?
 
Not worth spending £500, just wait for PAYG, or get the contract and get all those minutes and texts free.

As for the OP, there isn't really a way, unless you want to spend pointless money. Which defeats the object. Put up without one for now, then get one when you move?
 
Not yet.

Unless you want to pay a stupid price for one on eBay, but then you will still have to use an O2 SIM for it to work.

Just to confirm, my current o2 online tariff will work perfectly in an ebay iphone 3g. No missing features or anything?
 
Not worth spending £500, just wait for PAYG, or get the contract and get all those minutes and texts free.

I would love to get the contract but I do not have an old iphone contract and still have 12 months remaining on my old o2 online contract so I dont think im eligible?
 
I would pay £300 for one, if I could. O well, Apple have lost my sale, but I'm sure their price fixing will more than make up for it.
 
If your considering spending £500 on the phone to put it on PAYG then your crazy, an 18 month contract at £35 a month is only £729 and you get plenty of minutes, texts and unlimited data. You would easily spend that over 18 months with it on PAYG plus you have to fork over for the data.
 
Good point RobH, still 18 months with fast moving technology.

With the previous two iPhone upgrades (v1 16gb and 3G) it has been much cheaper to upgrade than if you had a normal handset, in fact with the 3G people with old iPhones are able to upgrade for nothing with no penalty even though they are only a few months into a contract.
 
Well no actually any other manufacturer will sell a unlocked, non subsidised and unbranded version of the phone which you can buy online no problems......:rolleyes:

Not for £300 for a brand new phone. It's not the law they do that, why should they? Companies probably make a lot of money selling unlocked phones, because it seems generally foolish to buy one, so I don't see why Apple would be not doing it to make money.
 
More sales > less sales

Why would a company want to make less money by potentionally selling less because network limitations?

I never said they should sell it for £300, because thats a supposed subidised price for the 8GB from O2 for a PAYG (locked to o2)....

For example when the N95 V1 came out it was around £480-500 sim free on the internet. Where as i got mine free on contract.

Your point was that every other manufacturer makes exclusive agreements witht the carriers to sell there phones with a set price like apple. Which is wrong. Also competition in a hadware market is always better for the people that are buying the poduct, means lower prices from the networks which will entice more people to buy which will lead to more sales.

Carriers just negociates a price for a whole boat load of handsets from the manufacturer and sets their own pricing. Everyother manufacturer will sell to anyone as they will make more money the more they sell. Thus more sales > less sales.

Just think how many V1's would be out there if anyone could buy it, sim free or on contract.
 
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With the previous two iPhone upgrades (v1 16gb and 3G) it has been much cheaper to upgrade than if you had a normal handset, in fact with the 3G people with old iPhones are able to upgrade for nothing with no penalty even though they are only a few months into a contract.

The Free upgrade is just them cancelling the existing contract, for an 8Gb £35 a month tarriff then will be £99 or £159 for 16Gb to upgrade, which is the same price as someone going in that is not on contract buying one.

Not quite what I call an upgrade for nothing. £45 tarriff for 8Gb Free or £75 for 16Gb Free.
 
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