Anyone bought an unlocked iPhone from Italy?

G-Money

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has bought one of the factory unlocked iPhones from Italy? If so, where did you buy it from and how much did it cost?

I may be making a trip to Belgium and/or Italy this summer and both countries legally sell factory unlocked iPhones so I'm weighing up my options for buying one abroad and thus avoiding going to O2 here

Cheers,

nava

grandmaster wrote: »

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has bought one of the factory unlocked iPhones from Italy? If so, where did you buy it from and how much did it cost?

I may be making a trip to Belgium and/or Italy this summer and both countries legally sell factory unlocked iPhones so I'm weighing up my options for buying one abroad and thus avoiding going to O2 here

Cheers,

Hi

I haven't done it but reading a few people here as far as I recall is very straight forward just go to a shop and buy it, some shops might even activate for you with an Italian SIM, some users said that when they got back to Ireland just put a local SIM and were able to activate the phone.

If you search the forum you will find more info and precised.

blahblah06

hi lad.my mum is over there as we speak hunting down one for me. i shall let ya know

G-Money

Nice one blahblah, let us know how you get on.

I was wondering how difficult it would be to buy one there, with the language barrier and all. I mean I'm guessing you'd want their equivalent of a pay as you go, so you arent stuck on some contract.

blahblah06

update she is having trouble finding a shop overthere that sells it. thats my mum for ya. will keep you updated

Rew

I organised one for my bro and we stuck in his voda SIM and all worked as expected and still does.

G-Money

Hey Rew, did you get the iPhone in Italy? If so where abouts?

RATM

What kinda bobs do they cost in Italy? Cheaper than here or do Apple have an EU wide pricing policy ?

Rew

grandmaster wrote: »

Hey Rew, did you get the iPhone in Italy? If so where abouts?

No I bought it off a guy on Boards who brought it back from his travels. It was brand new boxed and sealed with the recipt. I have a factory unlocked one as well (no idea where it came from) and I've had now issues using it on multiple networks. There both 3G one 8GB and one 16GB in case there's any confusion.

cojomo2

Hi yeah I bought one in Rome about 7 months ago, i got it in a TIM shop...dont do this tho..as u pay and extra 20 uid for their prepaid sim..instead, buy it sim free from a phone shop..there are a few in the Rome termini railway station which is in the centre of Rome.

I activated it over there with the Italian sim that it came with alltho I believe u can activate it with your Irish sim card. 16gb cost me 569 euro, but like i said, 20 cheaper sim free in a phone shop that sells sim free phones.

blahblah06

grand sorry about this just getting back to u. my mum got back last night but no phone shops in sorrento so she says. anyway mate i picked up a factory unlocked 8gb for 485 from a guy in ireland. has one left i bought the 2nd last one. thats including postage. if you want me to give him a shout u know were i am. oh and it has the latest software. 2.2 i think i dont have a clue about i phones ha
(this is cheaper than the 8gb been sold in italy by 15 euro)

Deep Thought

Hi

Does anyone know If you can buy them online in Italy?

Maybe vodafone Italy or TIM online ?

Any one got a link to TIM ?

Thanks

Tom Dunne

Szondi wrote: »

Any one got a link to TIM ?

Using my amazing powers of deduction, I typed the words "TIM" and "Italy" into my transputer workstation, which, through the wonders of modern technology had a Google webpage open. After I did that, I was magically transferred, via the first hit in Goolge, to www.TIM.it.

Isn't technology wonderful?

Deep Thought

Tom Dunne wrote:

After I did that, I was magically transferred, via the first hit in Goolge, to www.TIM.it.

Isn't technology wonderful?

:P:P:P

Did that aswell.....:D

Hows your Italian ??

G-Money

Does it have to be registered in Italy with an Italian SIM? If so, I guess buying from one of those TIM shops would probably be the best option. If not, I suppose I could wait until I got home and used my Vodafone Ireland SIM.

I assume there are some places in Milan to buy them? (That's probably where I will be going).

marymc

Can you activate your iPhone IN Italy with your Irish sim? Looking at the posts, it seems like you can't, but whyyyy? If it's activated with an Italian sim (what's another €20!) can you stick your Irish sim in then and play with it and fix it up when you get home?

Can you use it at all before you activate it?

I want to get one (3GS) when I'm in Italy this summer, but if I get it early I'll be dying to fiddle with it, so I'd like to know.

culabula

I was one of the first to get an Italian iPhone (white, 16GB) last year.

It was as simple as pie, a matter of walking in to shop, buying, shooting and leaving.

There was no need to 'activate' it with ANY SIM; I have never used the Italian one and I just popped my 3UK one in with X-Series and off I went.

Since then I have used the following in it, without fail: Bouygues Telecom, O2 IRL Contract and Speakeasy, SFR, O2 UK PAYG, Vodafone IRL, Vodafone UK, 3 IRL dataSIM, Meteor and a whole host of others. There has never been the slightest problem.

Since purchase, the only thing that has changed with 2.2.1 and 3.0 was the need to input an APN -when I first got it, data flowed without the need for the APN. Therefore, it may be that some sort of low-level 'activation' is now needed.

I wouldn't buy it any other way.

cojomo2

marymc wrote: »

Can you activate your iPhone IN Italy with your Irish sim? Looking at the posts, it seems like you can't, but whyyyy? If it's activated with an Italian sim (what's another €20!) can you stick your Irish sim in then and play with it and fix it up when you get home?

Can you use it at all before you activate it?

I want to get one (3GS) when I'm in Italy this summer, but if I get it early I'll be dying to fiddle with it, so I'd like to know.

i got 1 in italy. when i turned it on it told me to connect to itunes. I did, and activated it with the italian sim.10 mins it took, then i put my irish sim in and everything worked fine. I believe you can activate it with the irish sim tho.

culabula

marymc wrote: »

Can you activate your iPhone IN Italy with your Irish sim? Looking at the posts, it seems like you can't, but whyyyy? If it's activated with an Italian sim (what's another €20!) can you stick your Irish sim in then and play with it and fix it up when you get home?

Can you use it at all before you activate it?

I want to get one (3GS) when I'm in Italy this summer, but if I get it early I'll be dying to fiddle with it, so I'd like to know.

Another 20€ in Ireland -not much. But in Italy it would get you a nice dinner and change.

G-Money

I'm off to Italy in about 3 months time so I might try and pick one up when I'm there. Time to start saving the pennies...

Mcloke

Hello,
Hoping to get new iphone via an Italian friend can you tell me if there is any language problem with an Italian iphone....is it in Italian and you need to set language and is this easy to do?
Thanks

culabula

iPhone is iPhone: you set the language you wish the OS to function in from 'settings' -it's not a problem.

Mcloke

Thank you Culabula

dingding

Got an Italian 16GB one in a TIM shop in Italy. I think it was about 569 and I got it over the Christmas hols. i have used it with a Three IE sim since and no problems. When I synced it to my iTunes it became English language.

Never had a network problem with it. I think I had to put the Three APN into it.

Can't fault it on the Three network with the 10 Euro data add on.

culabula

dingding wrote: »

Got an Italian 16GB one in a TIM shop in Italy. I think it was about 569 and I got it over the Christmas hols. i have used it with a Three IE sim since and no problems. When I synced it to my iTunes it became English language.

Never had a network problem with it. I think I had to put the Three APN into it.

Can't fault it on the Three network with the 10 Euro data add on.

Yep: couldn't agree more. All ports open. Flying!

Gekko

TIM says the 16gb is €619 and the 32gb is €719.

To put that in perspective, for the price of the 32gb you could more or less buy 2 iPod Touch 32gbs.

Apple are greedy.

Gekko

wonder if it'll be any cheaper, and still unlocked, in Belgium?

marymc

Gekko wrote: »

TIM says the 16gb is €619 and the 32gb is €719.

To put that in perspective, for the price of the 32gb you could more or less buy 2 iPod Touch 32gbs.

Apple are greedy.

I think it's Vodafone Italy too. I hate it, but from their perspective, everyone is buying from them, then whisking the phone out of the country and they get no more good out of it!

culabula wrote:

Another 20€ in Ireland -not much. But in Italy it would get you a nice dinner and change.

I don't think that highlights how rich and careless we are, rather how we've been forced to think that another €20 down the drain is reasonable. I'd nearly say the recession is the best thing to hit this country in the last ten years. Cop the feck on with the crazy pricing (well, hopefully. Not seeing too much yet.)

Grim_Wreeper

I bought one from Italy.... Zero problems at all!! It's great! the only thing I had to get was an irish adapter for the charger.