iPhone 4 on Cincinnati Bell

[anon(157335)]

Hi everyone,

I have a friend who is a CinBell customer without a contract and he is interested in getting rid of his BlackBerry and upgrading to an iPhone. He doesn't want to sign a contract with a new provider, primarily because he pays significantly less for two phones with CinBell than he would with AT&T, VZW, or Sprint; his wife will most likely want an iPhone as well.

It doesn't necessarily have to be an iPhone 4, but out-of-pocket costs for two 4s's would be steep, and I figured the iPhone 4 would fit his needs slightly better than the 3GS.

Are there any CinBell iPhone users here (or others who are knowledgable about the situation) who can walk me through getting a couple of iPhones into my friend's hands? Specifically I need to know what iPhone 4 model he needs to look for, how to go about activating it on CinBell's network, etc. I just went into a VZW store and upgraded, so I'm not sure what this process will involve.

I should mention that he is not very technically savvy, so jailbreaking isn't really an option; he is in his mid-30's and just bought his first PC ever about a week ago.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you all can provide.

 

[sting7k]

Well, bottom line is that using the iPhone on a carrier that is not officially supported takes some technical know how.

First off, looking at CinBell it looks like they use the same 3G frequencies as Tmobile so he would be limited to EDGE speeds on their network as the iPhone does not support those frequencies. Unless they have changed since 2009 which is the date of the article I found. It does look like the carrier has roaming agreements with AT&T and possibly Tmobile but I really don't know about it.

Second, he would need an unlocked iPhone 4 which is $550 from Apple. Or a GSM iPhone 4 that is jailbroken and unlocked which may also be fairly expensive.

IMO, if he is not a techie he should not attempt what he will need to do. Looking at their website IMO he would be better served by a Samsung Nexus S which CinBell appears to sell for $99 on contract. He might also consider calling CinBell asking about using an unlocked iPhone on their network on the chance they can offer some help.

 

[anon(157335)]

Well, bottom line is that using the iPhone on a carrier that is not officially supported takes some technical know how.

First off, looking at CinBell it looks like they use the same 3G frequencies as Tmobile so he would be limited to EDGE speeds on their network as the iPhone does not support those frequencies. Unless they have changed since 2009 which is the date of the article I found. It does look like the carrier has roaming agreements with AT&T and possibly Tmobile but I really don't know about it.

Second, he would need an unlocked iPhone 4 which is $550 from Apple. Or a GSM iPhone 4 that is jailbroken and unlocked which may also be fairly expensive.

IMO, if he is not a techie he should not attempt what he will need to do. Looking at their website IMO he would be better served by a Samsung Nexus S which CinBell appears to sell for $99 on contract. He might also consider calling CinBell asking about using an unlocked iPhone on their network on the chance they can offer some help.

Thanks, I had a feeling it wasn't going to be a simple procedure. I just spoke to him and he's thinking about signing a contract with Sprint, we'll see what happens.