Contrary to what you might have read on various blogs and news sites, there is no way to buy the iPhone 3G without a contract (i.e. plan or subscription) in USA.
I recently spend my summer holiday in the States and went to an AT&T and an Apple Store in Boston. At both places I explained that I wanted to buy an iPhone without a contract since I live in Europe and have no need for the AT&T-hook up.
The answer I got at both places was: No can do! The iPhone is not purchasable without a two year AT&T contract - which according to the sales guy at the Apple Store comes to a total of a couple of thousand dollars.
The Apple Store guy even looked at me all puzzled and said: But Sir, the iPhone is available in Denmark, why don't you buy it there?
heh, heh...
Well, Telia which sells the phone here in Denmark seriously over-prices the damn thing - and even charges you extra for unlocking it. All in all the gadget winds up costing around 1200 dollars compared to the rumored 400-600 dollars for the American zero-contract iPhone. Besides... the Danish iPhone has been sold out for more than a month now.
You have to do a little digging on the the AT&T corporate Web Site but then you'll find a press release indicating that in the future AT€T does plans to sell the phone without a contract. But there is no saying if "in the future" means tomorrow, in the next couple of months or next year!
Hi Henrik - I have a couple of iphone/Danish cell phone questions for you. I will be moving to Denmark from the US in June and was wondering if it is possible to buy an unlocked phone (on the internet or ebay), bring it to Denmark, and then use a carrier other than Telia? If this is possible how expensive are typical monthly plans and what carrier would you recommend?
Thanks - Matt
Posted by: mjlaye | March 17, 2009 at 09:50 PM