iPhone in UK?

[ziomatrixacs]

Hello guys, I am at my first base in the UK, first time ever leaving the US.

Quickly found out my Verizon prepaid phone doesn't work. So I need a new phone. The internet service on base is real slow, often crowded. It would be nice to get one that lets me tether for internet.

Started to buy an Iphone but apple.com says the price is £440.40 for a 16gb 3GS. Then it said it cant ship to a PO box so I am screwed there twice. Since £440.40 converts to about $875! I also hear the 02 phone service sucks. I heard it is expensive as heck per month but they do have some real flexible plans.

So, I want to be able to call back to the states real cheap, get internet but not pay nearly $1000 for a phone + huge monthly fees. This is my first phone too, so I have no credit. Should I buy one from the states, send it here, jail break it so I can use vonaphone (sp?) instead of 02?

[sgould]

In the UK the iPhone is being sold by O2 shops as well as Carphone Warehouse. These two companies have shops all over the place. Just go in and buy one with your credit card. If you want pay as you go, I think you have to go to O2 - not sure that Carphone Warehouse are doing PAYG.

My current phone is on a Vodaphone contract and works everywhere I've been - Europe and US. But if you are based in UK you really need a UK contract.

For overseas calls to family, I gave started using Skype from my laptop.

[Giaguara]

If you'd get one in US and jailbreak it, you'd be out of luck if you'd need it serviced. But otherwise - why not. Or get one from Switzerland or Italy or whereever they sell those unlocked. No need for the UK premium chrges.

O2 sucks and I say that (1,90 euros per minute to call US at any hour of day?!!!) but my experiences with their suckiness is with the Irish counterpart.. I hope O2 in UK sucks less. But with all the other providers out there, I'd probably have a look at the others too.
I'd probably go again with Orange as they are usually cheapest. And - depending on how long you plan to stay there, and how you will be set internet wise, maybe have internet where you live (or get mobile broadband - Orange has that available too, with a bunch of other options). Probably a simple prepay phone and one of those net dongles and use your Mac for calling home? There are plenty of other options to O2 - Orange, 3 (how about a skypephone?), Vodafone...

The most useful feature in iPhone for calling abroad for what I've tried is Skype. That with Skype out minutes - I've used it for calling to a bunch of landlines at a few cents a minute vs what the international charges are (always ridiculous). If you'll decide to just get O2 iPhone you probably want to use Skype when you can...

One thing: if you don't really use mobile phone a lot, there is no reason to go with contract. I've been using only pre-pays for nearly 10 years now (and before then contracts).

[ziomatrixacs]

Well, I plan to use it mainly for internet and caling to the US. I wanted to use skype but Im not sure if it works over a wifi network.

Maybe buy the internet dongle as suggested, turn on internet sharing, and connect my iphone to that. I know my ipod works fine like that.. it just sucks cause for that trouble, I minds well just use skype on my computer and not the iphone.

Instead i was going to JB the iphone, run skype on it to call home over a cell network then use it to tether my computer for internet.

[sgould]

Skype works fine on my 2 MB wi-fi from my laptop. I think it's OK on something a bit slower.

[ziomatrixacs]

its about 10kb max here, and the library isnt open during the hours you need it to be since the time zone difference..

[Giaguara]

Skype works even on 56k (for audio). Tested on that bandwidth once...
With plain wireless network it works fine - I never use a wired connection any more while home, and that's where I use skype for 90 % of the time.