iPhone postponed
I’ve been using MacOSX for more than 7 years (already!) and, of course, I am well aware what one can do with iPhone. Because my family (in Japan) was all using the NTT (the biggest telecommunication company in Japan, used to government-owned) as mobile career and I used to work for a NTT spin-off, iPhone wasn’t (unfortunately) an option. I finally thought I could get one here.
So I went out to the city for gathering information about the mobile phone contract with iPhone. Here’s what I’ve been told by the clerk.
You have to wait for another 2 months.
In order to have a contract signed up, one has to have stayed in Austria for at least 3 months, he said. Additionally you need to have a saving account in an Austrian bank (which I already have). It doesn’t make much sense to me, since I already have my address here (with an official document called “Meldezettel”.
Impression I got is that another career isn’t that picky about the length of your (previous) stay. But their contract condition doesn’t look that attractive, compared to the one with above…
Looking at a page like this, iPhone is under “Don’t buy” state. Perhaps it might be a good excuse to convince myself to wait for a new version of iPhone (if any..).
I would wait, with the new iPhone revision certainly knocking soon on the door…
> Pawel-san
Let’s see.. Hope it’d be released soon (that I wouldn’t have to buy the current one).
It’s not specific to iPhone. I also couldn’t buy a decent mobile phone plan (even with the cheapest, i.e. 0eu, phone they offered) when I first moved to Austria. I had to get one through my wife’s name instead because as someone who had only been here a few weeks, I was considered too risky to give a contract to.
> Michel
I do understand being considered as a risky person (to sign a contract with). But I do not know whether having stayed here for 3 months would really make difference and make them relieved.
It is probably statistical. The number of people who fulfill the contract obligations who are here less than 3 months is much lower than the people who are here longer than 3 months. And since the iPhone is subsidized for much lower than its production cost, it is a bigger risk than with cheaper cellphones. Or it could just be an arbitrary number plucked from thin air. Either way, if you really want it and are willing to pay more, you can easily find an unlocked iPhone on the Internet and just put your current SIM card in instead of buying a new contract. The cheapest contracts for iPhones are ~35eu per month anyway. Compared to the 8eu per month I pay now, there’s no way I’d go for that kind of increase, especially since I already have an iPod Touch since Feb 2008 and didn’t find it as awesome as I expected. It’s just way too big for your pocket. Maybe I’ll consider the Nexus One when/if it’s released this month.
Ahh.. I left my (Japanese) mobile phone, together with SIM card inserted, and it has to be there in order not to extend the contract. It is 2-years-long fixed contract, which is automatically extended (for another 2 years) if nothing is done, and I’d rather not pay for basic charge (about 7EUR/M) to something I never use. I asked my parents to revoke the contract, so that no extra charge (breakup fee) emerges.
Since I’d probably have a lot of data transmitted / received, using pre-paid card doesn’t come up as an option.
I still have to check out how the prices (with the contract) would be, had I bought a SIM-free iPhone. In any case, it is either to use contracted iPhone, or unlocked one with contract in Austria.