[Advice] French Legit Unlocked iPhone

[kashefcom]

I remember reading something about French law forbidding the sale of locked phones unless they can be [legit]unlocked (for a fee I guess). Could someone please confirm/clarify this? Thanks.
If this is true it means we can buy our 3g phones on July 11th unlocked since its pretty affordable.

[DarkLord7854]

I believe you had to wait 6 months before being able to get it unlocked.. Might have been for free though, and you could pay to have it unlocked immediatly

[nine days]

This is true. I live in France and recently, all official fresh iPhone buyers can have their phones unlocked!

But this applies to the moment when you bought your phone. So if you buy a 3G iPhone, you will have to wait until 2009 tp get your phone officially unlocked!

[STV]

Hello,
for the moment, if you buy an iPhone in a french Orange store (with a adress in France), you can phone-call an official number to unlock your phone for 100Euros.
But if you don't wanna pay, you have to wait 6 month for this... The french law says that they have to offer the possibility to sell an unlocked phone. But it doesn't fix the price !
So, if you want to unlock it when you buy it, it will cost you 100€
If you wait 6 month, you can ask it for free.
Hope, I'm clear enough.
xxx

[Hr.Kaiser]

so you definitely need an address in france to be able to buy an iphone in the orange shops?

[kevinbr]

so you definitely need an address in france to be able to buy an iphone in the orange shops?

No, A lot of people seemed to manage to buy one. Under EU law, Orange cannot refuse to sell something to another EU citizen. How it worked was you bought a 100 Euro SIM top up and when you called customer service they debit this card.

If they did ask for an address it was to send you a letter telling you when the phone was unlocked, which of course you do not need the letter. My phone tool 3 days to unlock. But I am an Orange France customer.

French Law also says you have to sell a phone without a contract so it will be interesting to see what the real price of the iphone is.

[kashefcom]

Thanks for all the replies. So this means I can now buy an iphone 3g from France on July 11, wait for 3 days for unlock, and then be legit unlocked (use on any carrier) and not have to wait till it's released in my country. This is great as the iphone price is really cheap, I have no problem (and I believe many others) paying for legit unlock as this is probably the amount of the subsidy (200$?) but could anyone confirm if I need to be a french citizen/have french credit card/have french address or will it be possible to buy as a foreigner (keeping in mind I will release it from its carrier subsidy the day I'm buying it). Thanks.

[TJ2K7]

Hello,
for the moment, if you buy an iPhone in a french Orange store (with a adress in France), you can phone-call an official number to unlock your phone for 100Euros.
But if you don't wanna pay, you have to wait 6 month for this... The french law says that they have to offer the possibility to sell an unlocked phone. But it doesn't fix the price !
So, if you want to unlock it when you buy it, it will cost you 100€
If you wait 6 month, you can ask it for free.
Hope, I'm clear enough.
xxx
Oh, Thats Great!
May have a trip to France and buy an legit unlocked iPhone :D

[kevinbr]

Thanks for all the replies. So this means I can now buy an iphone 3g from France on July 11, wait for 3 days for unlock, and then be legit unlocked (use on any carrier) and not have to wait till it's released in my country. This is great as the iphone price is really cheap, I have no problem (and I believe many others) paying for legit unlock as this is probably the amount of the subsidy (200$?) but could anyone confirm if I need to be a french citizen/have french credit card/have french address or will it be possible to buy as a foreigner (keeping in mind I will release it from its carrier subsidy the day I'm buying it). Thanks.

The price you see is the subsidized price. Orange France are not going to sell you a phone with no contract for 199.00. I also believe it is French law that any phone sold must also be offered without a plan. The original iPhone was no subsidized so the price was the price. I suspect it will be 400+ Euros with no plan just as a prepay.

But we will see. You do not have to be a French citizen. EU law would not allow a company to sell only to a French man. The only reason I believe they might ask for a French address is to send you the unlock confirmation. You do not need a French credit card either. If they ask you for an address, have a prepared "false" but not false address if you know what I mean. Pick an address out of the phone book.

Perhaps wait a day or two for people to report on the unlock issue, they COULD change the process -- but I doubt it.

[ldhilljr]

Re: the French address -- I followed one of the old threads on this topic for quite awhile, and the consensus was you could use any French address for the unnecessary letter, but more important was having a French iTunes account to actually get the unlock process to work. As you may be aware, creating an iTunes account in a different country isn't always easy (you can easily set up a UK iTunes account it in the UK by buying an iTunes card there in £££ and then going to the UK iTunes site, but I have not yet been able to find anyone selling an iTunes card that goes with the French iTunes store).

[kashefcom]

The price you see is the subsidized price. Orange France are not going to sell you a phone with no contract for 199.00. I also believe it is French law that any phone sold must also be offered without a plan. The original iPhone was no subsidized so the price was the price. I suspect it will be 400+ Euros with no plan just as a prepay.

But we will see. You do not have to be a French citizen. EU law would not allow a company to sell only to a French man. The only reason I believe they might ask for a French address is to send you the unlock confirmation. You do not need a French credit card either. If they ask you for an address, have a prepared "false" but not false address if you know what I mean. Pick an address out of the phone book.

Perhaps wait a day or two for people to report on the unlock issue, they COULD change the process -- but I doubt it.
Maybe I wasn't clear enough I meant the unlock will probably cost the amount of the subsidy which is rumoured to be $200, so if phone is sold for $200 and you pay the unlock you get a legit unlocked phone for $400 (rumours not real numbers). Someone said the unlock would take 3 days to complete so I guess you'll have to be in France as long as you're still waiting. And till now the reports are conflicting, can you or can't you buy without a french address? Thanks all.

[kultschar]

Maybe I wasn't clear enough I meant the unlock will probably cost the amount of the subsidy which is rumoured to be $200, so if phone is sold for $200 and you pay the unlock you get a legit unlocked phone for $400 (rumours not real numbers). Someone said the unlock would take 3 days to complete so I guess you'll have to be in France as long as you're still waiting. And till now the reports are conflicting, can you or can't you buy without a french address? Thanks all.


I think it will be more like $600/£300 (in line with Europe prices for the last gen iPhone for a Pay As You Go model (Italian Vodaphone has annouced 500 Euros or something).

[kevinbr]

Re: the French address -- I followed one of the old threads on this topic for quite awhile, and the consensus was you could use any French address for the unnecessary letter, but more important was having a French iTunes account to actually get the unlock process to work. As you may be aware, creating an iTunes account in a different country isn't always easy (you can easily set up a UK iTunes account it in the UK by buying an iTunes card there in £££ and then going to the UK iTunes site, but I have not yet been able to find anyone selling an iTunes card that goes with the French iTunes store).

At the time I was in contact with various people from places like Switzerland who had bought the iphone in France, while it did not come up specifically, I am sure they did not have a French itunes account. I suspect that each country sends a message to Apple with phone identifier, and I cannot imagine that Apple have a database per country, perhaps iTunes is coded to lookup this database, and then send the unlock. But I do not know. I seem to recall various people confirming you did not need a french itunes account.

I could not believe that iTunes has country specific code to lookup into a country specific unlock database. I think it just goes to a generic apple database. But pure speculation.

[kevinbr]

http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?p=147213&highlight=france+itunes+unlock#post147213

This guy confirms no need of French iTunes. Also I can confirm the letter is just a notification to remind you to sync your phone, at which point if the unlock is ready iTunes informs you - phone unlocked. I never actually got the letter, I just connected every day for three day and lo on the third day, my phone arose as an unlocked iphone.

You do not need to be in France for three days, it is just a phone call to service client. They do not initiate the unlock in the shop, unless the assistant call the customer service for you as a favor.

[Zf_]

You can be almost sure it'll take a few months at best for Orange to receive the unlock codes for the 3G Iphone ... and the price will most likely be completly extravagant :eek:

Better get a prepaid phone somewhere and wait for the unofficial unlock IMHO - it might take months as well but at least it'll be cheaper :)

[kevinbr]

You can be almost sure it'll take a few months at best for Orange to receive the unlock codes for the 3G Iphone ... and the price will most likely be completly extravagant :eek:

Better get a prepaid phone somewhere and wait for the unofficial unlock IMHO - it might take months as well but at least it'll be cheaper :)

Under French law, Orange must offer an unlocked phone. The original iphone was inlockable from day one.

[kashefcom]

You can be almost sure it'll take a few months at best for Orange to receive the unlock codes for the 3G Iphone ... and the price will most likely be completly extravagant :eek:

Better get a prepaid phone somewhere and wait for the unofficial unlock IMHO - it might take months as well but at least it'll be cheaper :)
IMHO I don't believe the 3g iphone will ever be (unofficially) unlocked that's why I'm inquiring about the legit unlock.

[Ayla]

Any news on the price for a legit, unlocked iPhone 3G from France, Orange?

I would like to buy one and use it here in Denmark. I don't mind paying extra for a legit unlock.

And, with an unlocked iPhone 3G from France, are you sure it's not bound to French SIM cards (even though it's "unlocked")?

/Martin

[Zf_]

Prices have been made official a few weeks ago - 609 euros for an unlocked 8G, 709 euros for an unlocked 16G

(to be more precise : you buy a prepaid 8G for 509 euros or a prepaid 16G for 609 euros then pay a 100 euros unlocking fee later)

[shadman248]

so thge thing is
i am going to buy one unlocked from france on july 17
and bring it to my country dubai
but the question is will it work here????

[ldhilljr]

so thge thing is
i am going to buy one unlocked from france on july 17
and bring it to my country dubai
but the question is will it work here????

If the 2G iPhones are anything to go by, there may still be an issue of whether the new 3G iPhone (even if it's unlocked) will work in an "unsupported" country. On the 2G iPhone this problem was solved by installing and running some software (e.g., I ran the software to get my unlocked US iPhone to work in New Zealand), but if the new 3G iPhone has not been jailbroken, such software may not be available.

On the other hand, it is also possible that the new firmware to be distributed with the 3G iPhone will already have a fix for this country issue. My advice -- wait and read the posts to find out before committing to a €509/€609 payment.

[shadman248]

If the 2G iPhones are anything to go by, there may still be an issue of whether the new 3G iPhone (even if it's unlocked) will work in an "unsupported" country. On the 2G iPhone this problem was solved by installing and running some software (e.g., I ran the software to get my unlocked US iPhone to work in New Zealand), but if the new 3G iPhone has not been jailbroken, such software may not be available.

On the other hand, it is also possible that the new firmware to be distributed with the 3G iPhone will already have a fix for this country issue. My advice -- wait and read the posts to find out before committing to a €509/€609 payment.

i had a 2g iphone ..
it use to work in Dubai perfectly
i have used it on 1.0.2 to 1.1.4
with out using iworld
so i hope if france is selling official unlocked 3g iphone it will work here...