Unlocking The Iphone 3g

[BOOKEMDANO]

Hello,

Would someone be kind enough to explain to me that, if I bought either a factory unlocked Iphone or software unlocked Iphone in the UK, would I be able to take this to Thailand and simply pop in a sim card and away I go? Or, would the 3G have to be re-unlocked in order to operate with a Thai sim card?

The reason I ask is that I would like to send the tgf one and this guy in the phone shop told her that she would have to pay him 3,000 baht in order for this phone to function in Thailand regardless if it was already factory/software unlocked when you bought it.

Is he pulling a fast one the cheeky monkey?

[jackbox]

An unlocked iPhone, regardless of how it was unlocked, will work with DTAC or TrueMove on 3G. It will not work with AIS 3G no matter what you do to it because the iPhone doesn't support the frequency AIS uses for 3G. The only usable 3G in Bangkok is TrueMove. DTAC only has 3G on three cells for testing. The phone shop guy is lying to you to steal money from you. If she is not in Bangkok, Hua Hin or Chonburi on TrueMove then there will be no 3G service in the rest of the country. 3G in Thailand is very limited at this time. Could also be a case she made up the story about the phone shop to get an extra 3,000 baht along with her free iPhone.

[BOOKEMDANO]

An unlocked iPhone, regardless of how it was unlocked, will work with DTAC or TrueMove on 3G. It will not work with AIS 3G no matter what you do to it because the iPhone doesn't support the frequency AIS uses for 3G. The only usable 3G in Bangkok is TrueMove. DTAC only has 3G on three cells for testing. The phone shop guy is lying to you to steal money from you. If she is not in Bangkok, Hua Hin or Chonburi on TrueMove then there will be no 3G service in the rest of the country. 3G in Thailand is very limited at this time. Could also be a case she made up the story about the phone shop to get an extra 3,000 baht along with her free iPhone.

She is based in Chiang Mai so I take it Truemove is out of the question going by your info. Do you know what network provider covers this area for 3G otherwise is pointless sending over the phone let alone the extra 3 grand .

Bookem'

[RivaArt]

There is no 3G coverage in ChiangMai.

(Basicaly 3G is only available in Bangkok and only on a few specific spots.)

Anyway iPhone 3G can be used even without 3g coverage of course.

(I hope this is not the king of 'girfriend' that misteriously fell in love with you forever after you met in a thai bar (where she works) and needs some money from time to time to fix family problems. = payd companion fooling stupid foreigners )

[jackbox]

There is no 3G coverage in ChiangMai.

(Basicaly 3G is only available in Bangkok and only on a few specific spots.)

Anyway iPhone 3G can be used even without 3g coverage of course.

(I hope this is not the king of 'girfriend' that misteriously fell in love with you forever after you met in a thai bar (where she works) and needs some money from time to time to fix family problems. = payd companion fooling stupid foreigners )

That is not true. TrueMove 3G now covers most of central Chiang Mai. AIS covers Chiang Mai as well but AIS 3G frequencies are not iPhone compatible. She doesn't need 3G if she only makes phone calls, sends sms texts, etc. Save your money and tell her to get a cheap phone.

[BOOKEMDANO]

There is no 3G coverage in ChiangMai.

(Basicaly 3G is only available in Bangkok and only on a few specific spots.)

Anyway iPhone 3G can be used even without 3g coverage of course.

(I hope this is not the king of 'girfriend' that misteriously fell in love with you forever after you met in a thai bar (where she works) and needs some money from time to time to fix family problems. = payd companion fooling stupid foreigners )

Thanks for the info Rivaart.

I'm not sure why most the people on here automatically assume that she is a brass? I would be more inclined going with the story that this guy was genuinely trying to scam her out of an extra 3grand to 'unlock the phone'. It's not only bargirls that seem to be experts at fleecing foreigners' but It's also my experience that many Thais would readily increase the price of certain products or services if they thought that they could get away with it.

Anyway, now that you say there is no 3G coverage in Chiang mai I might reconsider the choice of phone...

Bookem'

[Gluestick]

There is coverage in Chiangmai.

http://www.truemove.com/en/service-3g-3.html

Click on the coverage area and pick Chiangmai.

An unlocked iphone should work with any sim. I have a US one that I have unlocked/jailbroken and it works fine. I do use True because of the 3G service. The gf or the shop might be talking about jailbreaking so she can have a bunch of free apps/games.

You might also want to consider a Blackberry if you have one. It's very easy to chat and keep in touch when you use Blackberries. You can even send voice messages instead of typing. The only problem I have encountered is that your tgf might become addicted to her Blackberry if she has friends that also have one.