News
Unlocked iPhones sold by Orange not ‘country locked’
By Charles Starrett
Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Friday, December 14, 2007
News Category: iPhone
Contrary to a claim published today, iLounge has confirmed with Orange that unlocked iPhones sold by the company are not limited to French-only SIM cards. A story claimed that unlocked iPhones sold by Orange were somehow “country locked,” and unable to work with SIM cards other than those from other French carriers. “Once legally (through Orange Customer Service) unlocked, the iPhone will operate with any SIM card, including foreign ones. But some applications like ‘Visual Voice Mail’ may not work abroad,” Orange’s Louis-Michel Aymard told iLounge in an email. In addition to offering clarification to the unlocking issue, Aymard also told iLounge that the percentage of unlocked iPhones sold by Orange was “a lot smaller than 20%.”
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1
This notice, Is 100% true???
Thanks..
Posted by josep on December 17, 2007 at 5:56 AM (PDT)
2
There are many reports to the contrary. Furthermore, even if you buy “unlocked” phone, the unlock takes 7-10 days wait and can be only done withinn the Orange network. There are, howeve, claims, that if you sync with iTunes using non-orange SIM, it will execute the prepaid (100EUR) outside of France.
The support at Orange has as many variable answers as there are people working there.
Posted by Canook on December 21, 2007 at 3:49 PM (PDT)
3
I can confirm phones are country locked. Called Orange they said it is an Apple issue. Called Apple, they say Orange should not have advertised their phones as fully unlocked. Called Orange again and now they admit it. They would reimburse me. Received a mail from Apple saying this COULD be taken care of. Asked about being more specific: they replied case is closed, they dont guarantee a solution, but I could hope in one.
Apples loses a few points for me today.
Posted by smemobox on January 16, 2008 at 3:33 AM (PDT)