Australia has one of the best and most competitive range of postpaid and prepaid iphone plans. This means that consumers have many choices.
Lifehacker reader Tom was interested in 3’s late entry into the iPhone market, but wanted to see if he could use a cheaper unlocked phone from Apple with a 3 plan. However, 3’s phone sales team had a tall tale to tell on that front:
I’ve just got off the phone with 3 who advised me that there would be incompatibilities between the unlocked Apple store bought iPhones and the 3 network. When I pushed for further information (presuming the ‘incompatibilities’ actually referred to the fact it wouldn’t have the ‘3’ logo on the back and a icon for Planet 3 in the menu) the customer service representative mentioned that it was a SIM card incompatibility resulting in reduced functionality; which is why their branded iPhones are the only recommended handsets to use.
Given Apple’s reluctance to let any companies mess substantially with the 3 experience, that seemed unlikely. Lifehacker contacted 3 for confirmation of whether this was true, and we were promptly told “there would be no difference” regardless of where the iPhone was sourced from. In other words, the salesperson was flat-out lying to try and get a bigger sale. That’s hardly uncommon, of course, but it’s worth bearing in mind when you’re researching your iPhone options.
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