[Gracin]

I'm in the US, and some friends of mine from Norway and Italy are visiting at the moment. They leave in about a week and want to buy iPhones here in the states since they're less expensive. Is it possible for them to get iPhones working on their cell networks at home?

[cpjr]

If the cell network is GSM, then yes they should be able too in theory.

But how depends on what they buy 2g or 3g. And settings depend solely on their carrier.

[cupcake]

just to let you know they have iphone in italy also and yes they have 3g as well. The only thing is though they will have to change somesetting inorder to get sms and MMS to work also for the internet if they are not using WIFI.

[ben.underwod]

Yes of course they will be able. The only thing is that they will need to jailbreak and unlock their new iphones. Depending on the firmware and the type (2g or 3g) they will need an software unlock or an unlocking sim card
Btw how much did they paid for the iphones?