They will work on Optus, but not on Optus's UTMS or HSDPA network. I'm fairly certain an Optus 3G SIM will revert back to GSM & GPRS if placed in a non 3G phone (unlike 3)

Thanks Anthony, great help

Hopefully I get my iPhone this week.

7 day ago I went out and bought an Nokia E61i thinking that iPhone activation would be next to impossible in Aus, and I didn't have an US buddy to buy it through. Gawd I wish this posting was around 8 days ago.

*sigh* Now I don't know if I should eBay the E61i (which I love) and get myself an iPhone or if I should just hang on to the Nokia until the iPhone comes to AUS legit.

great faq! thanks.

I've got my iphone working with tesltra's gprs edge speeds now!
got a data plan from telstra, so i can do a bit of small browsing when out and about.. speeds seem pretty good, better than i thought.

There have been comments for months about how easy it is to unlock, ZiPhone has been out quite a while now...
If you just got your Nokia and you love it then I guess you could just wait,
but I bet you'd love the iPhone more.

Hello all, I'm from the US and will be spending a few weeks in your beautiful country in April. We'll be in Sydney airport for just a few hours and the bulk of the time will be spent in the Cairns area. We may take a 4-5 day trip to Nadi, Fiji as well.

I'm a current iPhone user (not jailbroken or unlocked)

My need is primarily data, I really doubt I'll use any voice. Any advice on what would work best? AT&T offers a global data plan $59.99 for 50MB, which seems like very little data for a three week stay.

I have no issue jailbreaking the iPhone if that's what works best. Is there any prepaid SIM I could pickup either there in the airport or in Cairns airport. Something I could just slide in and use data? If not, are there carriers that I could sign up with for just a month? I'd really like to have everything in place before we leave if possible.

Thanks in advance, we are really looking forward to this trip.

Thanks for the info Anthony! you did a great job with the FAQ.

I bought my iPhone yesterday on Ebay and just awaiting it to get here tomorrow or Thurs!

I just purchased an iPhone through the US Apple Store using my Virgin MasterCard, and it worked. It's on its way from Shenzen to my shipper in California now!

So not all Australian cards are rejected, it seems!

Great instructions Anthony. Am I correct in guessing an iPhone bought in France for example will Also be able to be broken using these instructions ??

I pick up my iPhone on Friday.

I have a Bigpond Wireless USB Datacard, would the SIM in that work in the iPhone for bulk data?

Steve

Hi, I currently have an iphone and it is working quite well but its still exactly how i bought it, operation on version 1.1.1
My only complaint is that it signal strength can fluctuate wildly and i'm in central Sydney.
Would updating to the latest version help and if so how do i go about doing an update? do i use ziphone and do everything?
Any advice would be appreciated

Unfortunatley, there's no good pre-paid data out there. I'll do a bit of research for ya, but if you wanna have a go, the main pre-paid providers that will have coverage up there would be:

Welcome to Telstra.com
Vodafone Home
Optus - Welcome to Optus.com.au

So you may want to hunt around their website and find the one that will rape you less on pre-paid data. You'll also only get GPRS speed, not EDGE. There are no pre-paid EDGE plans (the only EDGE provider is Telstra, the rest are all GPRS).

I actually have no idea - the hardware is identical though. I'd be surprised if ZiPhone didn't work it's magic on it

It may work! Chuck it in and let us know.

I don't know if it will help, but having the latest version won't hurt. It's relatively easy to install. Get your iPhone into recovery mode, restore to 1.1.4, then run ZiPhone and install the Australian localisation apps. I'll write a proper guide on this soon, but that's the jist of it.

Thanks decryption for all the effort you have put in on this FAQ, as well as pointing out PriceUSA. I took the plunge this morning and ordered a refurbished 8GB to replace my aging k700i. I was really apprehensive about taking the leap, but your FAQ really simplified the process and eased by concerns.
Thumbs up.

It might be FAQ worthy, but I'm wondering about accessories for the iPhone. Do iPod accessories work? In particular, I'm thinking about things like the transmitters you get for sending music through the car stereo.

And can these be bought locally?