iPhone 3G coming to Singapore next week
SingTel has announced the availability of the iPhone 3G reports AppleInsider. Apple’s updated iPhone will go on sale on 22 August in Singapore in the second phase of its worldwide rollout.
“Thanks for your patience; we will bring in both the 8GB and 16GB versions with your choice of black or white,” SingTel vice president of consumer marketing Wong Soon Nam wrote in an email to subscribers. “At this stage we have not announced pricing. I will share it with you very shortly.”
With this announcement, it may turn out that Singapore would be the best place to get a legally unlocked iPhone 3G for Malaysians. My cousin in Singapore confirms that Malaysians can buy phone plans from SingTel without hassle. I’ve also been scouring the terms and conditions and FAQs for mobile plans on SingTel’s site. These terms are for all of SingTel’s phones, so I guess it’s safe to assume they will apply for the iPhone 3G too.
From my research, I can conclude:
- You should be able buy the iPhone with a postpaid plan and terminate your plan early.
- It may take a few days (see clause 2.2) to cancel and it will definitely cost you termination fees.
- It is unclear if the phone will be unlocked, although at least 1 person on this myMUG thread says it will.
However we’ll need to wait until 22 August before we get any more details on pricing and terms. I have a feeling as well that SingTel may have limited units and would definitely prefer not to sell it to non-Singaporean buyers.
Till then, I’m planning to make a trip down on Merdeka weekend…
4 Comments
Singtel just posted an FAQ on their site. The interesting ones are listed as follows:
Q:Can I get an iPhone on prepaid?
A:At this stage, no.
Q: Will the SIM be locked to SingTel?
A:The handset will be preset to the SingTel Network. Phones not connected to the SingTel network will not be supported by SingTel.
Q: Will my iPhone work with a StarHub or M1 SIM?
A: It may work but you may not enjoy the same iPhone experience as SingTel only supports iPhone 3G devices that are connected to SingTel’s network.
They have a few new plans for the iPhone as well.
Try to go to http://home.singtel.com/singtel/iphone/support_iphone.html and see what they have.
Thanks for the link Justin! Still pretty vague whether the iPhone is locked or not.
Yeah, the FAQ is kind funny. First they said it’s “preset” to SingTel, then they said it can be used with M1 and StarHub but not all features will work.
At first I thought it was the VVM(Visual Voice Mail) that they meant but in their FAQ they said VVM won’t work with SingTel also.
Anyway, only 7-8 odd hours to go before they sell it. See if your sources can tell us anything new or not….hehe..
Take a look at this http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39050603,62044993,00.htm
More importantly, take a look at the comments by justanalvin. He seems pretty sure that the iPhones sold across the Causeway are unlocked.
I don’t know how credible he is but it does give us a little bit of hope!
Good luck!
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