iphone 4s -bring with, or buy there?

[seouldier girl]

Hope someone has some advice, I've spent so much time trying to find answers to this question and all I've gotten is a headache!

Currently I'm in Ireland. I've wanted an iphone for ages (my current phone is many moons old) and can finally afford one. I should be in Korea by the end of the month and plan on staying one year. After that, I plan on coming back to Ireland for a month or so and then I will be doing a 1 year US visa, 1 yr Canadian visa and 1 yr Australian or New Zealand visa. Not neccessarily in that order.
Basically I want to buy a phone that I will be able to use in all these places, but I am so confused about the differences between GSM/CDWA and 3G/4G/non-G!

Has anyone experience in using an iphone in Asia, Europe and North America?  Would I be better off buying a factory unlocked iphone here and bringing it with me, or buying one in Korea and just paying the contract-breaking penalty in a years time?

I really don't want to buy a phone and then have it rendered useless in another country.

Thanks so much for any advice!

[Davey]

Hope someone has some advice, I've spent so much time trying to find answers to this question and all I've gotten is a headache!

Currently I'm in Ireland. I've wanted an iphone for ages (my current phone is many moons old) and can finally afford one. I should be in Korea by the end of the month and plan on staying one year. After that, I plan on coming back to Ireland for a month or so and then I will be doing a 1 year US visa, 1 yr Canadian visa and 1 yr Australian or New Zealand visa. Not neccessarily in that order.
Basically I want to buy a phone that I will be able to use in all these places, but I am so confused about the differences between GSM/CDWA and 3G/4G/non-G!

Has anyone experience in using an iphone in Asia, Europe and North America?  Would I be better off buying a factory unlocked iphone here and bringing it with me, or buying one in Korea and just paying the contract-breaking penalty in a years time?

I really don't want to buy a phone and then have it rendered useless in another country.

Thanks so much for any advice!

You're probably better off buying one here because bringing an iPhone from overseas and making it work here is headache. Getting it to work back home will almost certainly be less of a headache.

[confusedsafferinkorea]

Well an Iphone 4s is about 840,000 cash here or on a 2 year contract about 65,000 won a month. You are allowed to register one foreign phone here on the network and apparently it is pretty painless now, I haven't done it but from others posting here, it is supposed to be okay now.

Personally I would bring it if it is cheaper to buy there and then take out a contract for the phone, you now get ones that are for 2 years, but because you have your own handset, you can cancel it anytime after the first 3 months with no penalty. I have that deal because I paid cash for my HTC, so I am not locked into a 2 year contract.

The choice is yours. One more advantage is that your iPhone will be totally in English, my wife has one from SK here and sometimes you get Korean creeping into your phone via apps etc, not a big problem but it happens.