So the iphone 3g is available for those of us on a prepay connection but theres a catch. There is absolutely NO data available, due to some half-arsed excuse by vodafone/apple/whoever you want to blame. My question is, will there ever be data available, if so, when? Should one get a new 3g iphone and wait it out, or save $300 and get a second hand 2g one?
The 3G works on prepay sims, but its not available on prepay. You cant get it out the door of a vodafone shop without either signing a plan, or doing a dodgy deal. I am hoping that one day Vodafone will offer a data plan on prepay, as an addon, much like txt2000 & bestmates, but who knows.
Where do you plan on getting the iphone from? i'd be interested in getting one to use on prepay too.
I think the data side of it would be speculation at this stage, one way or another. I'd love it if they did. For me I am going to wait. I want the GPS so I can hopefully use it with a 3rd party maps app that will store the maps locally. If i didnt want that function, I'd have a hard time deciding to wait or not
Viking325i: The 3G works on prepay sims, but its not available on prepay. You cant get it out the door of a vodafone shop without either signing a plan, or doing a dodgy deal. I am hoping that one day Vodafone will offer a data plan on prepay, as an addon, much like txt2000 & bestmates, but who knows.
Where do you plan on getting the iphone from? i'd be interested in getting one to use on prepay too.
OK, I call BS. You can buy an iPhone, with no plan what so ever. What do you think those people who flew over to NZ were doing? Signing up to a 2 year NZ contract to fly back to the UK / US with. You pay full price but you can just buy the phone.
Viking325i: The 3G works on prepay sims, but its not available on prepay. You cant get it out the door of a vodafone shop without either signing a plan, or doing a dodgy deal. I am hoping that one day Vodafone will offer a data plan on prepay, as an addon, much like txt2000 & bestmates, but who knows.
Where do you plan on getting the iphone from? i'd be interested in getting one to use on prepay too.
OK, I call BS. You can buy an iPhone, with no plan what so ever. What do you think those people who flew over to NZ were doing? Signing up to a 2 year NZ contract to fly back to the UK / US with. You pay full price but you can just buy the phone.
The problem is with the APN.
This is the story I've heard too. The problem is as I understand that you can no longer edit your APN. So when a jailbreak comes out and we can SSH into the iPhone we should be able to manually edit the APN to make it work.
This is all just a dodgy Vodafone tactic. I think it's because they want more people on account...83% are on prepay now (last I heard).
No one has confirmed that you can't get GPRS data on the 3G with prepay yet though. I might see if I can do some testing with my friends 3G. I'll probably be happy when I can just update my 2.5G though... since 3G doesn't really mean much to us on prepay anyway.
I have no idea why Vodafone doesn't just open up data plans to the majority of customers on prepay... they can milk just as much money out of us that way and there would be many more people doing it.
Viking325i: The 3G works on prepay sims, but its not available on prepay. You cant get it out the door of a vodafone shop without either signing a plan, or doing a dodgy deal. I am hoping that one day Vodafone will offer a data plan on prepay, as an addon, much like txt2000 & bestmates, but who knows.
Where do you plan on getting the iphone from? i'd be interested in getting one to use on prepay too.
OK, I call BS. You can buy an iPhone, with no plan what so ever. What do you think those people who flew over to NZ were doing? Signing up to a 2 year NZ contract to fly back to the UK / US with. You pay full price but you can just buy the phone.
The problem is with the APN.
If thats the case I'll go and get one first thing tomorrow. However I was told from the Vodafone shop I was at that they would not sell it without some form of plan. If that is what the other stores are doing or not doing, I dont know, however thats what I was told at the closest store to my work. Maybe he is miss-interpreting what he should be doing, but that is what he said so its far from BS.
Viking325i: The 3G works on prepay sims, but its not available on prepay. You cant get it out the door of a vodafone shop without either signing a plan, or doing a dodgy deal. I am hoping that one day Vodafone will offer a data plan on prepay, as an addon, much like txt2000 & bestmates, but who knows.
Where do you plan on getting the iphone from? i'd be interested in getting one to use on prepay too.
OK, I call BS. You can buy an iPhone, with no plan what so ever. What do you think those people who flew over to NZ were doing? Signing up to a 2 year NZ contract to fly back to the UK / US with. You pay full price but you can just buy the phone.
The problem is with the APN.
If thats the case I'll go and get one first thing tomorrow. However I was told from the Vodafone shop I was at that they would not sell it without some form of plan. If that is what the other stores are doing or not doing, I dont know, however thats what I was told at the closest store to my work. Maybe he is miss-interpreting what he should be doing, but that is what he said so its far from BS. So how did the online store work? Did you have to sign up to a contract on purchase of the retail price of the phone?
So how did the online store work? Did you have to sign up to a contract on purchase of the retail price of the phone?
When I went to the online store it looked like it was just going to let me buy it... just said that it required an on account data plan.
I was very surprised when I heard that vodafone was going to physically stop you from taking a phone you paid full price out of the store without signing up to a 2 year contract. Seems like even they aren't that silly.
I walked into Vodafone on Colombo St in Christchurch, I asked them if it was locked to the network if I purchased it outright. They said no. I asked them for a white 16GB iPhone and as I was in a rush asked them if I can activate it myself. They said yes, and within 5 minutes of walking in, I walked out with a new iPhone.
I activated it with iTunes myself, and just to check that it was unlocked, threw my old O2 sim card in. I got service on the O2 sim card (albeight roaming on Voda's network) which proved that yes it is unlocked.
There seems to be a lot of BS around of how Voda won't let you buy it on Prepay, or pay the full retail price. I am not really sure where people are getting this from. You do need to be careful who you speak with at Vodafone though, they had/have a tent set up in the square in Chch and I new more about the iPhone than the staff that were demonstrating it. One of them even tried to tell me that if I didn't have a plan then I couldn't access the AppStore AT ALL, not even on wi-fi, I mean pleeeease!
With regards to getting GPRS to work, there is a file which has already been modified by some (including me) which contains the Vodafone specific APN details for 3G, it is a special APN for the iPhone which they have used. I have changed that so it now contains the normal Voda APN as well, however at this stage I/We cannot get it onto the iPhone, but if it can be figuered out, and once the Dev team release their jailbreak it should be easy, then you should be able to use GPRS Data with Prepay on the iPhone.
I can confirm at this stage though, there is NO 3G data or GPRS data on the new iPhone if you are on Prepay. It simply doesn't work. You can use wi-fi but that is all the data you will have.
I can confirm at this stage though, there is NO 3G data or GPRS data on the new iPhone if you are on Prepay. It simply doesn't work. You can use wi-fi but that is all the data you will have.
Thats awesome... well that is really stupid but it's the information I was after. Thanks.
I walked into Vodafone on Colombo St in Christchurch, I asked them if it was locked to the network if I purchased it outright. They said no. I asked them for a white 16GB iPhone and as I was in a rush asked them if I can activate it myself. They said yes, and within 5 minutes of walking in, I walked out with a new iPhone.
I activated it with iTunes myself, and just to check that it was unlocked, threw my old O2 sim card in. I got service on the O2 sim card (albeight roaming on Voda's network) which proved that yes it is unlocked.
There seems to be a lot of BS around of how Voda won't let you buy it on Prepay, or pay the full retail price. I am not really sure where people are getting this from. You do need to be careful who you speak with at Vodafone though, they had/have a tent set up in the square in Chch and I new more about the iPhone than the staff that were demonstrating it. One of them even tried to tell me that if I didn't have a plan then I couldn't access the AppStore AT ALL, not even on wi-fi, I mean pleeeease!
With regards to getting GPRS to work, there is a file which has already been modified by some (including me) which contains the Vodafone specific APN details for 3G, it is a special APN for the iPhone which they have used. I have changed that so it now contains the normal Voda APN as well, however at this stage I/We cannot get it onto the iPhone, but if it can be figuered out, and once the Dev team release their jailbreak it should be easy, then you should be able to use GPRS Data with Prepay on the iPhone.
I can confirm at this stage though, there is NO 3G data or GPRS data on the new iPhone if you are on Prepay. It simply doesn't work. You can use wi-fi but that is all the data you will have.
Great info! Best post I have seen amongst all the BS that has been thrown around lately!
tonyhughes:Great info! Best post I have seen amongst all the BS that has been thrown around lately!
What BS is being referred to? If it is to do with people being told they can't buy iPhones outright without adding a plan, those are personal experiences from people with no reason to lie, aren't they? As mentioned, sales staff have been inconsistent with both policy and information.
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