Rumor: Australian iPhones will be unlocked

I currently live in Australia. I can say that this was not completely unpredicted, there have been some articles by Law academics about the fact that Australian law, I believe, requires unlocked phones to be sold, ie that no company can have a monopoly on a phone. Do not quote me on that, but I believe that or something very similar is the case. Moreover, I would hope that it is 3G, Australia has a large 3G network, from different networks covering a large portion on the population. However, that is mostly because Australia has a small population with a big country, however most Australians live along the east coast.

Yeah, there are 4 major providers in Australia - Telstra, Vodafone, Optus and 3. If Apple supports these then they should be right.

But our phone calls are expensive, and Telstra overcharges massively for data transfer, and the 'download' limit actually includes data uploaded... I have a strong loathing of Telstra.
Which was recently boosted by the fact that I cannot get ADSL2+ because Telstra are too cheap to provide me (and oh-so many others... like, the entire Mawson Lakes suburb, which is supposed to be all latest and greatest technology) because they split the copper line.

Australia's telecommunications networks suck.

As someone who has lived in both the United States and Australia I'd rather have AT&T any day - did you know that most "unlimited downloaded broadband" services here have a download limit (through Telstra mine is 10 Gb per month), cost a fortune (mine is ~$60 per month - that's USD$65.92), and are less than half the speed that is common in North America.

I'd rather than be locked into a single company like AT&T (despite its shortcomings) than getting constantly shafted by the crappy telcos over here. Collusion is rife.

I just hope one of the Australian carriers comes out with a good all you can eat data plan, or at least something decent as apposed to the current $1 / 1mb trend..

If the data rates stay as ridiculous as that, I will just stick it out with my imported EDGE iPhone.. getting my emails while having a beer at the pub will be a thing of the future for me.

WOW! Stop the presses! That is such huge news!!1!...

...except that it broke almost a month ago. *yawn*

http://forums.mactalk.com.au/20/47520-australian-iphone-release-info-given-resellers-apple-australia.html

Ow, and the fact that Apple hasn't wised up to the whole euro versus the dollar thing.

The poor iPhone sales in Europe are mostly because the lock-ins come at no (or yawnable) discount and the accompanying plans are prohibitively expensive.

Without 3G there are better deals and phones to choose from over here. Must say that I like the idea of non-exclusivity and more varied offering of plans.

We'll see.

Recently I got an offer of a official (german) Apple reseller for unlocked iPhones 8 and 16GB. I can preorder a number of any for 425/495 Euros. As it is an Apple reseller I can't think of a fake. They would risc their license, I think.

This bosters my theory that the 3G phone will be unlocked worldwide and that Apple will work with carriers to provide iPhone plans & subsidies, as well as specific rights to carry and sell the iPhone. Revenue sharing *may* be dead folks--look at the poor iPhone sales in Europe. People there just don't want to get locked into a contract or deal with a phone that locks them to a specific carrier.

Here in the U.S., at&t might still be the "exclusive" carrier for sales and offer the rumored $200 subsidy if you sign up for a 2-year contract (through iTunes of course) but you can buy an unlocked 3G iPhone at any Apple Store and take it to any carrier or county of your choice.

This way Apple deals with both the twin problems of the cat & mouse unlocking game (and resultant warranty nightmare and bad PR) as well as the limits on sales due to exclusive carrier agreements. In the end, Apple might end up looking more like typical phone manufacturers such as Nokia and HTC.

Hmm... seams to me if apple will sell them both w/w o contract. Same thing in Italy, Apple would probably offer both providers (but one at a discount). I would only think that apple would make you pay more for it to be on something other than Vodafone (ex 3 or Telstra) But people who would purchase it on Vodafone would probably pay A$50-A$100 cheeper. (Thats if they make a semi-exclusive deal with Vodafone)