Using iphone 3G/3Gs on Meteor

quarryman

Noob question here. I'm currently on Meteor Pay as you Go, with a very low monthly spend. I want to buy an iphone but don't want to get wrapped into paying €50 per month for 18 months.

If I buy secondhand and unlock it can I then put my Meteor sim card am i able to access the 3g network?

If not, can i just move to o2 and get a sim card from them? Will 3G work?

Tom Dunne

quarryman wrote: »

If I buy secondhand and unlock it can I then put my Meteor sim card am i able to access the 3g network?

Yes. Plus, you have the added benefit (if you would call it that) that where there is no Meteor 3G, there is most likely Meteor 2.75G (i.e. EDGE). Which isn't bad for browsing. Meteor only have 3G in Dublin and Cork at the moment.

Note that you can't yet unlock the 3GS. Give it time, though.

quarryman wrote: »

If not, can i just move to o2 and get a sim card from them? Will 3G work?

I really hope 3G would work on a 3G iPhone.

quarryman

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Yes. Plus, you have the added benefit (if you would call it that) that where there is no Meteor 3G, there is most likely Meteor 2.75G (i.e. EDGE). Which isn't bad for browsing. Meteor only have 3G in Dublin and Cork at the moment.

Note that you can't yet unlock the 3GS. Give it time, though.

thanks.

Tom Dunne wrote: »

I really hope 3G would work on a 3G iPhone.

ha, i meant there would be no issues buying the sim card and getting to use the o2 3G network considering the phone unlocked etc.

just looking at the meteor page there. They charge 2c per kb up 99c for a day. That makes no sense. Within in 50kb you've already used up 99c. I assume that it supposed to say: 2c per MB.

I would expect to use 2-3Mb a day on 3G so that would be ~10c. 30 days would be 3 euro a month. If i throw in a few calls and free texts on meteor then I'd be mad to sign up to o2!

swingking

I really wish Meteor would offer data bundles for their customers instead of the 99c per day rule which is IMO sh1te. It means that for opening one single web page, you already have to spend 1 euro and you can't carry the data over.

I think if you are on meteor bill pay; there is a way to get a data bundle (something like 250MB) for 10 euro ; don't quote me on that though

quarryman

Is it actually 2c per kB? If so then will use 99c after 50kb, basically one web page! Is it not meant to be per MB?

Irishdudedave

Its 2c per kB.... Thats what makes their PAYG data options very poor!

Tom Dunne

Irishdudedave wrote: »

Its 2c per kB.... Thats what makes their PAYG data options very poor!

It's 2c per Kb, no different to any other mobile provider. Details here.

However, the way they do it is 99c per day for up to 50Mb. If you go over that limit, the 2c per kb kicks in.

I was on the post-pay 250Mb per month for €10 which I only went over once in my year and a half with them.

quarryman

ok, in that case it will work out at 99c per day which is €30 per month. I make around €20 worth of calls a month so that brings it close to o2's €50 per month making it alot less attractive to stay on meteor.

Tom Dunne

But will you use data every day? (e.g. at the weekends)

O2's cheapest offering is €40 a month, btw, which includes 1Gb of data, plus unlimited calls/texts.

quarryman

Yeah i need to assume that i will access the internet/check mail etc, once per day. And each time i do i would imagine it will be over 50Kb.

O2's cheapest option is €40 but that is unlimited to o2. I think for the extra €5 the 175 mins and 100 texts option is better. Then i'm adding insurance, so rougly €50 per month.

Capt. Insano

I've been using an iPhone 3G with Meteor since Nov '08 using a TurboSim first then Yellowsn0w and now Ultrasn0w.

First was on PAYG and now Bill-Pay never once had a problem, Live in Dublin, but from Cork and both have good 3G: otherwise as said before Edge is just fine for browsing.

Bill-Pay Meteor offers 250MB bundle for €10 and "unlimited" (1GB fair-usage) for €30, they're Customer Service were also really helpful with Setting up the iPhone.

Seeing as O2 don't even offer Visual Voicemail, IMHO I'm missing nothing and gaining a whole lot with free Meteor 2 Meteor Texts/Calls.

dermots

I'm using a meteor SIM on my iPhone 3g. I got the phone in Hong Kong, so it's an unlocked iPhone that accepts any SIM card (i.e. I didn't have to unlock my phone)

I'm on Pay as you Go on Meteor. They charge 1 euro/day for mobile internet. My gmail account automatically updates its mailbox, so I end up getting charged every single day for mobile internet. Does anyone know if there is a way of turning off this automatic updating? It's annoying to pay for usage everyday when I don't really need it. I can't figure out how to avoid this, though.

blaz

Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendar -> Fetch New Data, then set Push to Off and Fetch to Manually. That should do the trick.

dermots

dermots wrote: »

I'm using a meteor SIM on my iPhone 3g. I got the phone in Hong Kong, so it's an unlocked iPhone that accepts any SIM card (i.e. I didn't have to unlock my phone)

I'm on Pay as you Go on Meteor. They charge 1 euro/day for mobile internet. My gmail account automatically updates its mailbox, so I end up getting charged every single day for mobile internet. Does anyone know if there is a way of turning off this automatic updating? It's annoying to pay for usage everyday when I don't really need it. I can't figure out how to avoid this, though.

Dont use the mail app.

Just use Safari.

dermots

Thanks blaz, that seemed to work.

The app is handier for checking mail in one button push.

sitje

im new to this :P just wondering...... i was thinking of buying an unlocked iphone 3gs off ebay from hong kong. I know someone said it would work on meteor pay as you go, but why is he/she paying for internet?? is it not just wifi?? surely there is no charge on thaat???
thanks!!

dermots

wifi only works if you are near a wifi signal that you have access to. if you cannot access a wifi signal, then you can log onto the internet via 3G which you pay the mobile provider for access.

dave oc

It uses both Wifi and 3G. Wifi when available at no cost (at home, cafes, etc) and 3G when out of wifi coverage. Meteor have 50mb data for 99c per day on pay as you go, I use this on my iPhone and it suits me grand. Be careful when buying off ebay that the phone is not fake and either software unlocked on 3.1.2 or factory unlocked.

sitje

ok so when your out of wifi signal you can use 3g! Thats fine but i really have no interest in using the 3g at all. If i dont tell the provider, will the 3g just not be accessible.....because to be honest this would suit me perfect! I pay €20 a month for free talk and txts to meteor(most friends etc on meteor) so really dont want to be paying more than that!?? Thanks for the replies too, much appreciated!!

dermots

Yes, exactly. If you don't opt into the Pay as you Go Broadband, then you won't be charged anything extra. It's really handy to have it, though. All of Dublin is covered by 3G network, but you'll only find so many free wifi spots around town.

Good Luck with new phone.

dave oc

As dermots said, you can leave 3g data settings on the iPhone blank so it won't use your credit. Honestly I topup with 20 a month and use 3g data, most of my friends are meteor too so I've free call and texts to them and so I use the 20 for data and other calls/ txts. Rarely have to topup more than once a month.

Just think about it cause I couldn't use my iPhone without 3g data!

sitje

ok, thanks a mil to the two of ye!! Really helpfull, was worried about paying that kinda money on a phone and being raped by extra charges!!:D I live in Galway so no 3g here so no piont in it! its only in dub and Cork(i think?!). Thanks again!!

emaxwell14

I was also thinking of buying an iphone 3gs of ebay. If I were to get one that says it is unlocked to 3.1.2, would I be able to get it updated when 4.0.0 comes out? And if it is unlocked will i still be able to use the iTunes app store? Any help would be apreciated.

AFAIK iPhone 4.0 Beta 1 (Not sure about Beta 2, but I think it has been) has already been jailbroken (hacked). So an unlock is looking good. More than likely it will be possible to unlock.

Unlocking/Jailbreaking an iPhone/iPod Touch will not stop the user been able to use the App Store.

Follow the people below on twitter to keep up with the Jailbreaking scene.

http://twitter.com/musclenerd / http://twitter.com/iphone_dev (iPhone dev-team)

http://twitter.com/geohot (First person to hack/unlock the iphone)

http://twitter.com/Ih8sn0w (Another jailbrekaing team)

http://twitter.com/DinoD7 (An iPhone modder)

http://twitter/saurik (Developer of Cydia, a third party app installer)

http://twitter.com/comex (iPhone hacker/s)

http://twitter.com/DarkMalloc (iPhone hacker)
As for this topic the iPhone can use 3G with Meteor, there is a carrier bundle in Cydia (Jailbroken device needed)