can factory unlocked iphone be locked by accident?

Buying an iPhone off ebay is risky since you can't really confirm the seller's claims. If you were buying from a legitimate source that sells an unlocked phone then you could rest easy about using an O2 SIM or an Australian SIM.

All iPhones need to be activated through iTunes. iTunes is how you sync music/movies/contacts etc to the iPhone. iTunes is also how you get the firmware updates.

Another thing to remember, if you have a warranty issue, you will need to take the phone to the country of origin. You will not be able to go to Apple UK for help.

Feedback on ebay is pretty meaningless now. Ebay changed the rules so it's virtually impossible to give negative feedback.

Can a factory unlocked (e.g. Italian, Belgian) iPhone be locked accidentally if you activate with the SIM of a iPhone carrier?

Answer: No.

Does a factory unlocked phone need to be activated and registered on itunes too?

Answer: Yes. But you can do this as many times as you like. I have "activated" my iphone twice on different computers with different iTunes accounts with no problems. The carrier makes no difference in this case.



PS; when you get your phone, give Apple Italy a call (or a large phone shop located in Italy) and find out the process for warranty returns. In Belgium you simply send the phone to Apple's authorised service company (actually located in Holland) and they ship it back once repaired. It only cost me €7.50 to send it from Ireland and they covered return postage for my warranty replacement.

If you buy an unlocked iphone from italy, how do you configure the browser/internet settings on the phone so you can use the 3g network on any network. Can you manually input these into the phone depending on what country and network you are using?

In our case after buying the iPhone 3G from an authorised Apple dealer in HK, we used it in South Asia and then back in Canada, both times with different SIM cards. You just plug in the local SIM and re-sync it with your iTunes account so that it detects the wireless provider of that SIM card and then downloads the appropriate settings. That's my experience with a factory unlocked iPhone.