No love for me sending them the email? Notice the "Thanks Kieran!" at the end of the post? the k in my kmcilwain@gmail.com email address ain't there for nothing

tryandbyte: Thank you for finally confirming what I've been hoping is true. I can finally take advantage of an iPhone with my work SIM card. 2GB data here I come!

Now, just to put myself on a raincheck-list and wait for my product.

There are other things to consider rather than the final dollar amount. What does $40 get you on Optus in the way of data? Is this person already contracted to 3. Are they part of a company (like myself) who have a 3 business account? There's a myriad of reasons why somebody would find it more economical to buy the phone outright and then unlock it.

Mmm ok I'm buying now, Very happy with three, always have been

Or simply not wish to be tied to a contract ...

When I hear confirmation that someone who bought one at Telstra has had it unlocked and working on 3, I'll be buying one to use with my current 3 arrangement; $29 cap + $5/month Explorer Starter Pack (20Mb), though I'll probably upgrade to thr $8/month 100Mb option.

Why not just get it through Optus? or are you counting on Telstra having excess stock?

Telstra do have excess stock.
Optus has nothing.

Go with Telstra if you want it outright.
Forget about Optus because everyone is going on contract with them and sucking up their stock.

DSE were selling iPhones locked to Vodafone but now that has ceased. Plans only.

I'd rather just go with Telstra and pay their high unlock fee. At least stock is better and queues shorter. And you can have it 'now' rather than weeks/months.

What Huy said

I could've walked out of [T]Life in Melboure tonight with whichever iPhone I wanted; I held off until I've confirmed that someone has successfully unlocked a Telstra iPhone to work with 3.

as soon as it's worked for me, i'll be right here to let everyone know

i'm going to sing a mighty song to whatever poor iphone unlocking team member receives my call tomorrow

I thought they successfully unlocked with Optus (prepaid) and it worked with 3, however it should be the same process with Telstra since every carrier passes the IMEI info back to Apple who perform their magic with iTunes and pushes the unlock out to you (well, you get notified and do your iTunes restore thing and bada bing bada bang, unlocked).

what i want to know is telstra's alerting process, if there even is one
i am waiting anxiously after handing over $150 after already having placed $850 in their hands

I think the unlock is actually pushed out OTA and re-flashing the firmware + baseband just makes it take hold.

Also, there's no way I'm signing up for a contract on Telstra just to get the iPhone earlier - I'm just going to wait :P

^ Telstra sell it outright...

8GB $726
16GB $849

Good as Optus... except for their $150 fee ($80 on Optus).

Better than what I had to do:
8GB $785 Vodafone + $75 unlock (haven't done this yet).

Once Vodafone have their outright phones, it should be the same as Telstra.

That is,
8GB unlocked for around $860-870.
16GB unlocked for about $990-999.

This is a premium over Optus... about $50-70 but hey, you get it now.

Emphasis added for paranoia

When should = does, I'll be at [T]Life ASAP; the guy I spoke to tonight indicated that stock was not going to be a problem at [T]Life Melbourne.

Oh, mad!

I checked their site and found only 24 Month contracts.
I'll wait the next few weeks while my tax return is coming in and make my choice then :P

Huzzah for MTAU, I got the SMS at 3:30 this afternoon and have been plugging my phone into iTunes every hour or so hoping for some magical unlock message. Doing the restore now, and keeping my fingers X'ed :-)

[EDIT: And it worked!]

any other people receive the sms? i still haven't got mine T.T