Hi there I’m thinking about getting an iphone but I’m really confused by it all so was wondering if anyone here would be kind enough to clarify things for me.

My contract with orange has come to an end (ordinary contract with a sony Ericson k850i) so I’ve been haggling with them to try and get a better tariff. I tried to see if they could give me a deal on the iphone but they said no. So then I thought that I could just get a new tariff and phone, then sell the phone and buy a Pay as you go iphone and just put my new upgrade sim in that. But a friend pointed out that I’d need to have unlimited data on my new contract in order to use it on the iphone properly. I just spoke to orange about getting a blackberry with the blackberry data bundle. The guy I spoke to said that this data bundle would only ever work with blackberries though and not an iphone. So firstly I was wondering is this true, will Blackberry data bundles only ever work on Blackberries and not iphones? Secondly if it is true, then would it possible for me to get a contract with unlimited data with orange on some other phone (like a nokia or sony Ericson) and then switch the sim into an iphone and use it or will the data bundle cease to be effective on an iphone?

I asked someone in Carphone Warehouse and they said that you can only use iphone contracts on iphones not generic contracts. The guy in the Orange shop, however, said that you can use any sim on the iphone fine. The 2 threads i found below would seem to support that.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...ghlight=iphone
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...ghlight=iphone

Anyway thanks for any help you can give me. I’m so confused!

Hi,

I am on Orange and just got an iPhone 3GS, I have two lines, one for me and the other is used by my sister, she uses the iPhone sim card/tariff in a Nokia N97 and I use my existing normal Orange contract sim card in the iPhone, works perfect.

Some shops say it wont work as the rules on iPhones prices and tariffs are set by Apple themselves.

You can put any contract sim card in the iPhone on the network which it is locked to. However as mentioned you would want to consider getting an unlimited data bundle. Orange do this on any tariff for £10pm. However the blackberry bundle does some with unlimited data when it goes through the blackberry apn and orange wap. However I don't know if it covers useage over the Orange Internet APN, feedback is a bit mixed on this. We are led to believe that having the blackberry bundle on your account would cover all data useage and so far goin by my own mobile with Orange this seems to be the case.

You can only try with this, give it a shot and see what comes up.

Blackberry data bundles on Orange go through the dedicated Blackberry APN. All other data traffic will be charged.

You're best doing the £10 iPhone bolt-on.

your mistake there was actually expecting CW to know anything lol

Hi Sharky,

The comments here are all correct. You can use any SIM card in an iPhone and it will work.

To get the full experience of the iPhone, you need to ensure that the SIM card you are using has for instance an internet package to avoid any costly charges the following month.

In relation to the Blackberry bundle that you mentioned, that enables the push email facility for emails to be pushed onto your Blackberry. That facility won't work on any other make of phone.

You can buy an iPhone on Pay as You Go and then put a SIM into it, but it's worth weighing up the initial cost outlay for the phone and then having a package on the SIM card that you will be using to ensure that you get the full benefits of the iPhone.

Going for a full contract maybe the cheaper option.

Hope this helps.

Best Wishes

Ian

Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

Hi everyone thanks for your replies, they're greatly appreciated.

Ok so I received my orange upgrade today (new contract + new sony ericsson) and an orange iphone which I bought on PAYG. I've set up the sim for the new contract and it's working fine in my old phone. However, when I pop it in the iphone I get a message saying "waiting for activation. this may take some time." The signal bar in the top left shows no bars. I checked on the orange site and my area hasn't got a particularly good 3g signal for orange. However, I don't think it's a signal issue as when I put the sim in the new SE I get a decent 3g signal. I'm not really sure what's going on so I'd really appreciate your input. Hope I'll be able to sort this out as I really don't want to have to send my iphone back!

Hi everyone thanks for your replies, they're greatly appreciated.

Ok so I received my orange upgrade today (new contract + new sony ericsson) and an orange iphone which I bought on PAYG. I've set up the sim for the new contract and it's working fine in my old phone. However, when I pop it in the iphone I get a message saying "waiting for activation. this may take some time." The signal bar in the top left shows no bars. I checked on the orange site and my area hasn't got a particularly good 3g signal for orange. However, I don't think it's a signal issue as when I put the sim in the new SE I get a decent 3g signal. I'm not really sure what's going on so I'd really appreciate your input. Hope I'll be able to sort this out as I really don't want to have to send my iphone back!