iPhone working after contract expired?

This is very essential for me because the iPhone will be introduces in more european countries the next few months....but what if I do want to change provider? Two years is a long period and with appr. 5 providers in the Netherlands, in two years there will change a lot when it comes to tarifs, services, bundles and so on. When I fullfilled my contract (and payed appr. 2000 USD after two years!!) with Apple\provider will I be able to use my phone with another provider? or will it be locked again and virtualy change in a iPod Touch?
I've never heard or read a 100% clear answer and an earlier thread about this was closed by the moderators....."speculating....."

Well, if you cancel the contract early you'll still have use of the WiFi and iPod, but you wont be able to update your phone anymore as it requires you have an ATT contract/service. At that time it will try to get you to sign up for a new contract. After your 2 years are up, you'll still be an ATT customer just not under contract anymore. Which means then you can cancel your service with them and not pay any early termination fees. Your iPhone will still work just like it does now, your contract expires not your cell service. Just remember that even though your ATT contract is up in two years doesn't mean after that you can jailbreak the phone to use on another provider and have it be ok. ATT is contracted to be the sole service provider for the iPhone for 5 years.

Yes, the phone will still work as a wifi device and iPod. If you terminate the contract early, you would need to pay ATT an early termination fee.

Message was edited by: Tamara

Are you going to, or have you bought an iPhone? If your in the Netherlands, I would honestly wait till the phone is released there.

Tony-Bot wrote:
Does the iPhone still function after the 2-year contract with AT&T is over (if you just want to stop paying)? Also, I've heard a lot of things about the iPhone not working if you cancel the contract prematurely. I still want to be able to use the iPod and Wi-Fi features of the iPhone.. so is any of this true?

I wonder how many of us will still want to use the existing iPhone two years from now? I suspect I will be using the next version, or the one after that. For me AT&T is a no brainer: I've been using it for five years now and quite happy where I live and travel.

Phil

Can anyone confirm this? I spoke to someone at a local Apple store, as well as, a rep from ATT and they told a different story.

I want to buy an iPhone and wanted the benefit of an iPod w/ touch screen (i.e. the old iphone without contract) when I upgrade to the 3G version down the road....

Why not just buy an iPod Touch? It has all the features of the iPhone, just no cell phone feature. They aren't THAT expensive and when you're ready switch to an iPhone and sell the Touch on ebay.

(snip) Just remember that even though your ATT contract is up in two years doesn't mean after that you can jailbreak the phone to use on another provider and have it be ok. (snip)

What do you mean by "be ok" ?

Warranty-wise? If you don't extend that, it's gone a year before the contract is up. 🙂

Legal-wise? It's totally legal to modify it for another network. It's just that you might lose the ability to upgrade after that. Or not, depending on how you do it.

actually i bought the iphone in september from apple but added it to my existing contract. and because i didn't upgrade anything through at&t my contract is still up this june.
your iphone will still work after your contract is up as long as you stay with at&t and don't upgrade your contract. the contract is just so they can make money, after the two years is up you still pay a monthly bill but you can cancel without the fees. not many people know this because they get a letter in the mail about a year and a half into the contract that states "You are know eligible to upgrade your phone for these prices if you renew a new 2 year contract." everyone choose to do that even me.
if at&t tells you differently they are lying because my grandfather wasn't under a contract for almost 2 years before his phone died.

you're missing my point. I am looking for some type of usefulness out of the device after it comes off of the contract / gets replaced by another phone....