hi, I'll be travelling to the US in a few weeks, and i'm currently on an O2 contract here in the UK. My question is, when i arrive in the US, can i just buy and replace my sim card with a US pay as you go SIM card, and use that instead? i've used my iPhone 4 before in the states using my current sim card, and my phones always picked up AT&T and T-Mobile networks.
You can use SIM cards from other carriers ONLY if your phone is carrier UNLOCKED by O2. When you were using the O2 SIM card on AT&T or T-Mobile, you were paying exorbitant roaming charges.
The caveat is that AT&T doesn't sell PAYG SIMs for iPhones (only month-to-month) and T-Mobile is not fully compatible with iPhones (no 3G, FaceTime, Visual Voicemail or MMS).
Thanks for the reply, can't I just unlock it via jailbreaking instead? then restore it when I return home.
Why would you want to when o2 will unlock it for free and then you never have to worry about it being relocked.
Only becuase as far as i read online, they charge a small fee.
Jailbreaking/unauthorized unlocking can't be discussed here. You are risking security problems, random re-locking, and inability to update or restore the phone, Lots of problems get reported here which turn out to be due to hacking (which the hackers don't tell you about). SInce O2 WILL officially unlock it, you would be foolish not to.
Ok, great, thanks for the advice, i'll go down the o2 route before i travel. Many thanks
You're welcome. Enjoy your trip.
By the way o2 only charge if you are on PAYG, you said you are on a contract and for that it is free.
I was wondering if you could help me i've got a friend who is from the USA and is now in England and he need a British sim card how do i come about to changing his sim card.
Look, if you want help, then start a new thread of your own.
This question has been asked and answered already, so you are encroaching on somebody elses thread.
As for the sim card, just go to any phone company/carrier and purchase a pay as you go sim card for the phone - ensure that you get the correct one, either a micro sim or nano sim so it will fit the phone.
Just put it in the phone, but the phone has to be unlocked if it is a GSM phone to be able to use a UK sim card. If the phone is not carrier unlocked, then your friend will not be able to use the sim card and will have to use data roaming instead.
If they happen to have a CDMA phone from Verizon, then depending on what model of phone they have, it comes with a sim card slot for travelling purposes which is unlocked, so just insert the sim card and the phone will pick up the gsm network for use in the UK. Just take the sim card out when they get back to the US and they can use the phone normally again.
Changing UK iPhone 4 sim card for US sim card for travelling?
