Official Unlocked iPhones - NOT Officially Unlocked?

[Kyle Matthews]

Reports have been coming in that the French iPhones which were unlocked by Apple (yup, those ones that cost what amounts to roughly $1,000 USD), are actually NOT working outside of France - basically they were ONLY unlocked for French carriers. Any attempts to use them with OTHER carriers results in no phone functions (SMS, calls, etc) working.

Can anyone in France or with an Orange-unlocked, French iPhone confirm or debunk this?

update: Turns out running iWorld (available via Installer) on the phone WILL get it to work. Also, apparently Apple is calling this a "bug" and saying it should be fixed soon.

UPDATE FURTHER: Orange responds and says "lies, all lies" to these allegations. Apparently, iPhone Atlas, who cited NO sources for their story, apparently did not have their story straight.

[pokekid]

well that sucks and isn't fair at all..what a rip for those who actually spent their money on it

[secretmrx]

Apple are really making themselves look like dicks

you cant sell people incredibly expensive iphones and claim that they are "unlocked!!"

If it was unlocked it would be like an anySIM or IPSF iPhone - it would work with ANY carrier ANYWHERE with a compatible GSM service & SIM card.

Someone should take them to court again

[icem8n]

You'd think at a 1000euro per peace they would be happy.....after all the imports out of the states selling for 450 US dollars...hahahaha
And get this I remember a while back it cost even less to make the iphone!! (less than 399US)

Though to be honest people buying a iphone for 1000euro are not very clever either. :$

[bugme]

That isn't "unlocked", it's just increasing the number of carriers it's locked to.
So it's still locked.

[Bernie-Mac]

yeah thats false advertising

[Emir S.]

That's against the French law, if this is true.
The whole point of the law is that any company selling mobile phones in France has to fully unlock them before sale.

What is it with Apple lately. Have they been taken over by Verizon and Bill Gates?

[az1324]

I wonder if they tried iWorld

[Digital Oxygen]

I foresee Apple pushing themselves into the corner, like they did in the 80's. I guess they haven't heard the saying "those who do not heed history, are doomed to repeat it".

[Syal]

If that's true, it's clearly against EU Law, as it goes against the common market. If you claim a phone it's unlocked, it must be so in any EU country.

[bookmark]

You'd think at a 1000euro per peace they would be happy.....after all the imports out of the states selling for 450 US dollars...hahahaha
And get this I remember a while back it cost even less to make the iphone!! (less than 399US)

Though to be honest people buying a iphone for 1000euro are not very clever either. :$

I think they are just too clever to waste too much time on unlocking it themselves.
Besides those have such a spending power can't be too dumb in life, ain't that right?

[zapperen]

Confirmed.
A customer of me bought a iPhone in France and payed 649,- for it.
It works with any france SIM but not any norwegian sims.

[Digital Oxygen]

Besides those have such a spending power can't be too dumb in life, ain't that right?

Not necessarily...

What if they made their money the old fashion way? By inheriting it?

[timwinslade]

Reports have been coming in that the French iPhones which were unlocked by Apple (yup, those ones that cost what amounts to roughly $1,000 USD), are actually NOT working outside of France - basically they were ONLY unlocked for French carriers. Any attempts to use them with OTHER carriers results in no phone functions (SMS, calls, etc) working.

Can anyone in France or with an Orange-unlocked, French iPhone confirm or debunk this?

I can confirm this I bought one in France last week it unlocked yesterday the problems I am having our,

1, Cant open SMS app
2, Cant open keypad to dial a number but can call from the address book
3, Cant view recents
4, cant recieve a call.

This is with my Vodafone Spain sim inside with the Orange france sim it all works fine.

I have spoken to Apple and they say it is a bug and will be fixed. On the apple forum they have an official bug ID for it too. At the moment I have paid 750 Euro for a rather nice looking touch.

Annoyingly the only reason I bought this is that my first phone a 8gb HARDWARE unlocked screen got one of the dead patches on it. So not wanting to buy another I opted to go stright and if that went wrong atleast be able to send it back to apple.

[yowiphone]

APPLE are just F**KD in the head hardcore seriously they call them unlocked iphones how.

[youcrazy]

I can confirm this I bought one in France last week it unlocked yesterday the problems I am having our,
This is with my Vodafone Spain sim inside with the Orange france sim it all works fine.
I have spoken to Apple and they say it is a bug and will be fixed. On the apple forum they have an official bug ID for it too. At the moment I have paid 750 Euro for a rather nice looking touch.

What is the firmware and Modem version of your iphone? Sorry to hear your pain sure they will sort this soon for you.... but its good to have you here! Apple will hate spending valuable developers time on fixing these problems...
Have you tried any friends SIMs in your phone at all? Like Organe Spain etc.. What happen lets us know..

.. are actually NOT working outside of France - basically they were ONLY unlocked for French carriers. Any attempts to use them with OTHER carriers results in no phone functions (SMS, calls, etc) working.

Can anyone in France or with an Orange-unlocked, French iPhone confirm or debunk this?

Good question - would be good to know which Carriers work - Also down to the country level Vodafone NL or Vodafone UK.

Its quite common for people who travel alot in europe to own sims cards for the country they work in and their home country... eg UK and France etc... and for those to be with different carriers... so that would be a big two fingers to them!

Interesting:
"Purchasing an “unlocked” phone in France requires that you provide name, address, and iPhone’s IMEI number to Orange customer service, which will unlock the iPhone in about 5 days. A message will be sent to you, indicating that you need to restore your iPhone, at which point iTunes will inform you that your phone has been unlocked. "

[giveaphuk]

as long as my phone is unlocked, i don't care.. boohoo to ya'll...

[hosies]

Interesting:
"Purchasing an “unlocked” phone in France requires that you provide name, address, and iPhone’s IMEI number to Orange customer service, which will unlock the iPhone in about 5 days. A message will be sent to you, indicating that you need to restore your iPhone, at which point iTunes will inform you that your phone has been unlocked. "

so when you press restore you have to wait for itunes to download the software or what?

[ikyle88]

Try iWorld!

[timwinslade]

To answer your questions,

The firmware version is 1.1.2 the modem version is 04.02.13_G.

When you hit restore it downloads the 1.1.2 restore file installs it then opens the ITMS then after about 1 min it says your phone is unlocked.

It does not tell you that you can only use a french sim. Nor did the girl in France Telecom any sim any country were her words!

The only reason that you need to provide Orange customer services with an address for is for them to post out the instructions telling you to restore your phone. Also I suppose to stop people from say the UK buying one to use in England. Luckly I my Family home is in france so I have an address there.