Couldn't Apple roll out a triband 3G phone? Makes things easier for them and for everyone's stock control. The multi-colored iMacs were a nightmare to maintain.

All Vodafone and Optus have said is "Later this year", that does not mean end of the year. The Manager probably just made the same mistake other people have, they wouldn't have any info that hasn't been released publicly.
I'm pretty sure there's two kinds of 3G in Australia, Telstra, and everyone else. An Optus iPhone would work on 3, Virgin, Vodafone etc. a Telstra iPhone would only work on Telstra. However, as far as I know there's no reason Apple can't make a phone that works on both.

Will have to be quad band. 850/900/1800 or 1900/2100 UMTS. It really depends.

There are so many different frequencies and depending on how they want their roaming to work, it's going to be varied.

It's Apple. They don't need a reason :P Wait n see I guess

Now on the optus website

I assume the current 2G iPhone has to work on different frequencies in its different locations?

Does anyone know if Apple are doing it via hardware or software to change the frequency? I remember reading some post where a user said the iPhone took a moment to "acquire local settings" when they tried it in a different country.

Doing it via software rather than a hardwired chip should be possible now.

Referring to a post before - is the "New" nationwide 3G Network for Optus and Vodafone to be rolled out later this year a shared one? I thought they were going their own way after sharing the Metro 3G network for the last few years?

Correct. 800/900/1800/1900 at present I believe. Quad band to work on all normal GSM global networks.

It's all software at present. My iPhone works fine anywhere I go. It just takes a while to locate a network. That's all done via the SIM card. If the SIM can't locate the home network, it gathers information of the GSM network and then selects one of the pre-defined networks in the SIM card memory to connect to. These are set by the carrier to roaming partners they have agreements with. You can manually change between networks listed on the SIM though

Yes it is


AFAIK, that was 3 and Voda. 3 went to Telstra for roaming to GSM fallback when not in 3's coverage area.

my only concern is the cost it'll be being unlocked...we've seen the cost of the iphone in germany/france/etc...

i am sure if you sign a 24 month contract the hardware cost will be reasonable and possibly very tempting.

interesting that singtel is not including their thai & indonesian subsidiaries ... however the 4 countries they declared today represent another 89 million existing subscribers!

if they included thailand, indo & Pakistan the number would be over 170 million.

with all the other carriers that have just been announced you can see how the addressable market is going to be multiplied many times over come june - and still havent heard anything from china/japan/russia.