How sim free is an iphone 3g?

hi all, only a week ago ai ordered an iphone 3g 8gb from apple uk directly, and bfore placing my order had a chat with live support and i have been told it would be simfree and can be used abroad. i asked this question specifically as this phone is a present for a friend in Turkey. I wouldnt buy it if it wasnt simfree.
however it just wont work with any Turkihs gsm operator. after so many unsuccessful attempts, i activated and registered this phone with my own O2 simcard and everything works with that simcard, but as soon as I change it to any other card it just wont work. I tried restoring to factory settings and reactivating with Turkish simcard(s) with no luck.
Please can you advise if this iphone suppose to be simfree like apple claims? or is it me being stupid and cant even sort something really simple?
many thanks

UK iPhones are at this time all carrier-locked to O2 which, at least as of right now, does not provide unlocking services. So you were, I'm sorry to say, misinformed. You cannot use a UK iPhone with a SIM from any other carrier (not without hacking the iPhone, anyway).
I can only presume that the rep misunderstood what you were asking and was taking about international roaming.
Even if the iPhone were unlocked, it would be a bad idea to send a UK iPhone to a friend in Turkey, since your friend would get no support in Turkey for a UK-sold iPhone. Not only would the friend not be able to get help with using the iPhone, if anything were to go wrong with the hardware, your friend would have to send it back to you (or another friend/relative) in the UK to get it serviced.
Given that you were apparently misinformed, you should be able to return the iPhone and get your money back.

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