If I purchase an Apple Iphone in the US, can it be activated in Canada? If so, would you know which providers would do it?

I'm in the Maritimes, so we have Aliant, Telus & Rogers.

Thanks.

Rogers would.

Keep in mind no unlimited data plan. You will be paying through the roof if you plan to use the phone for more than just Voice/Text.

djino
"Uncle Ted would appreciate it though :)"

but could the phone be activated now? I know it's suppose to be available in Canada in six months or so, but I just didn't know if you could get it activated now.

avail in canada the next 6 monthes says who??

It might never be avail in Canada. Like ESPN or HBO!!

they talked about it on The Hour...it was either this week or last week. I can't remember

I have seen people use 'unlocked' phones being sold for 500 which can be hooked up to Fido and Rogers. I have seen these being sold on overstock

You'll have to first unlock it to use it with Rogers. Note that this voids the warranty and it's possible to brick your phone, so you need to be sure of what you're doing.

your not really ACTIVATING the IPHONE, Your essentially activating a NEW LINE with NO PHONE, then pop your sim card in the unlocked iPhone to make voice calls. OR you can use it on your existing rogers/fido line..

iPhone user on the Rogers network here.

First you have to start having a Rogers account and a Rogers SIM card. I was new to Rogers when I got my iPhone, signed a nice big 3 year contract to get My5, which was worth it to me, and got a free el-cheapo phone, but all that was useful to me was the SIM card that came with it.

Now, you have to watch your iPhone terminology here, here are iPhone specific terms and what I know to be their definitions:

Activate: When you take an iPhone out of the box, it says "Please connect to iTunes to activate". Until you activate, you have a $400 paperweight. See Apple's site here (http://www.apple.com/iphone/gettingstarted/activation.html).

Unlock: An iPhone bought in the US will only work with AT&T SIM cards. To get it to use a Rogers or Fido SIM card, you will have to unlock it.

Jailbreak: This allows you to user non-Apple developed apps on the iPhone. With the iPhone SDK supposedly coming out this month, this may not need to be done any more, but at the moment, it's the only way to run non-Apple apps on the phone.

The whole business around hacking the iPhone is a bit complicated. There are software versions for the OS (1.1.1,1.1.2,1.1.3), the bootloader (3.2,4.6), and the baseband, secpack... blah blah.

When I bought my phone, it was a 3.2 bootloader and the OS was 1.1.1. In this version, there was an exploit available that let you follow some very easy to follow steps and you could go from out of the box to an unlocked iPhone with simply access to the internet through wifi, which was the TIFF buffer overflow in MobileSafari that has since been patched, see jailbreakme.com I haven't risked updating any software on my phone since, there hasn't been much of a need to, although there are guides that supposedly let you do it.

Now, just yesterday, it was announced that the absolutely latest version of the iPhone, 1.1.3, with bootloader 4.6 can now be unlocked from out of the box. Here is a link to Engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/08/out-of-the-box-1-1-3-iphones-now-software-unlockable/).

You can find unlocked phones around, it's just people who have gone through this process. You can go through this process with a high probibility of sucess, although it's not be for the faint of heart.

Hope this helps

One of my workmates (a factory in Mississauga, Ontario) purchased an iPhone in the States a couple of months ago. He was finally able to get it unlocked a week ago for $65 he said. It looks great!
He had trouble for awhile because he had a newer version that wasn't able to be unlocked until recently. The older versions are easier.
He's with Rogers, if that's any help.

I just ordered one from the apple store and having it shipped via my amerifriend but NOW I realize or was told that the iphone downloads information almost constantly which rogers will consider data. thus a big whopping bill or else the added $65 for data. So I am told. Now I am going to cancel the iphone if I can or else I will have to sell it here :( and hope somone buys it.

stationg, you wont have any problems selling it here. Just check fleabay if you want to get rid of it.

Also, you are able to disable the data usage on the iphone (just leave the apn info blank in the settings).

stationg, I decided not to get a data plan to go with using the iPhone on the Rogers network, and I haven't found the need to get one yet, most of the the time I can find an open wifi network around...

Thanks!!! I feel better now. So I will be able to use wifi correct?

And good to know I can sell it. I just want the money back that I paid.

yes, you can still you wifi.

I met a guy on the weekend that was using the iPhone (he had used jailbreak too) on Fido and was loving it.

Hate to know how much a month he was spending but this guy loves his wireless phone

I've been using my iphone on Rogers for the last couple of months. Purchased it on ebay unlocked version 1.1.1.4 for around $400. Works great. The problem is Rogers Data plans for the Edge Data are very expensive. Anyone have any ideas about better prices for Data?

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/418649

after reading this article..Rogers is going to milk it for as much money as it can and screw us over

no unlimted internet? come on now

We need more cell phone companies in Canada...... this is getting ridiculus how the CRTC is allowing us to be left behind in the technology world

To answer your title, yes I plan on buying a 3G iPhone from Rogers / Apple. Hopefully sometime in June. ;)

You can only use it with Rogers or Fido...Rogers has data plans so go with Rogers