Unlocked German iPhone not working

Well, finally I DID IT! Solution is not too hard to perform and is working perfectly. The most imporant thing, apart from just Russian SIM enabling, I got applications install possibility - and there are LOT of applications for iPhone around! Great!

Since my iPhone is already Unlocked by Orange, the procedure has only few steps. I'm happy!!!

Message was edited by: Host

Hi Serge! Where did you DO IT? Do you have any link where I could ttry and do the same??? My phone is unlocked by T-mobile and I also have to do something about it! I don't want to have an expencive ipod!!!

Won't you invalidate the warranty this way?

Oh well, it is more than clear at this point that Apple will not provide update that could solve our problems any time soon. As much as I can understand their decision, I'm deeply disappointed with it.
They are riding the wave of success at the moment, stocks are all time high, sales are up, sitting on a mountain of cash and so on, so why would they care about few hundreds, maybe a thousand customers who didn't get what they paid for.
Apple is just another corporation with the same attitude and same policies concerning 'small people' when something goes wrong. We are too few and of too little importance to be concerned as an issue to deal with.

yvann_11 wrote:
As much as I can understand their decision, I'm deeply disappointed with it.

I do not understand it, actually. As far as I can see, the French authorities could stop the sales of all iPhones straight away, and they may issue a statement with a deadline before which a fix has to be there.

French law says that it should be possible to buy unlocked phones. The phones are definitely not unlocked enough to work with any European provider.

Besides, commercially it is a questionable shortcoming. Apple looses at least one customer through this - me. Even though I currently live in France, I am not going to buy a phone that I know will not work with foreign SIM cards when I stay abroad. Some people find that an acceptable shortcoming. I don't.

Well for me living in France I resisted buying a phone and hacking, I chose to wait and buy a French phone. I then paid for an official unlock, so I am somewhat irate that I have logged a call with everyone and now the powers that be are pretending there is no problem. Remind me what exactly I surrendered 100 Euros additional to the purchase price of the phone for?

I have been an exclusive mac user for 17 years and have loads of mac ipods etc. Not happy with life at the moment.

What bothers me a lot is that many people that bought legally unlocked iPhones are loyal Apple users/customers who wanted to get iPhone as soon as it become legally available, only to find out that Apple dosn't care about that kind of loyalty at all.

The iPhone does meet French law. It's unlocked to work with French cell providers. French law does not say anything about having to work with any other country's cell providers.

It would be interesting to see how the law is worded.

If it says "unlocked for other French providers", then the law contradicts some EU directive or other, as you are not allowed to make a distinction between French and other European companies.

However, if it says "unlocked for other providers operating on French soil", it would be cool for Apple, and they would simply have to update their marketing material to make sure it is clear where it works.

But my guess is that it says "unlocked for other providers", and then it would implicitly include other European and and international providers.

Orange France have made official statements about the iphone being unlocked. They are correct - the phone is 100% unlocked.

Quit quoting a law you do not understand. An unlocked GSM phone has a specific meaning. It means the iphone will function with any vlid GSM SIM card.

Orange are not specifying an Country Unlock.

The ball is in Apple's court.

Orange France are using the term "debloquage" - unlocked. They are not using ANYWHERE any qualification to this term.

The Term Unlocked GSM phone is very well understood. There is no ambiguity about this term.

If your phone does not with with any SIM card once the unlock is performed, you need to contact Apple support on this issue.

While you raise a vaild point, its very doubtful that Apple plans to correct the issue. The issue was first raised with the German unlocked phones quite some time ago and while the hackers found a fix almost immediately Apple has still not come out with anything. This lenght of time can not be attributed to troubleshooting or tweaking - Its clear they don't want to fix it.

They made a bold move by not allowing the unlocked phone to work outside of France (and Germany for the select unlocked phones). I strongly doubt they made this decision without being sure the law allows it. My understanding of the EU laws (Artical 26 to be exact) is that a company is not required to support a product in a country where it is not officially released. Since the iPhone is only released in the UK, Germany and France and works in all three of those countries they seem to be withing the law. If you have case law to dispute my point please let me know.

I don't agree with Apple's decision, lets be clear on that. I would be outraged in your position and I am certainly sympathetic. I do, however, believe that they have made it clear they do not want to support these out of country phones.

I do, however, believe that they have made it clear they do not want to support these out of country phones.

I think Apple should put this in writing, at least we -and future buyers of the unlocked iphone- know where we stand in regard to the unmentioned !

In a way, they have. They only sell the product in 4 countries at this point. They only advertise it in 4 countries. People who go to one of these 4 countries to buy the product make assumptions about it working. Regardless of how reasonable those assumptions are they are wrong.

"....Since the iPhone is only released in the UK, Germany and France and works in all three of those countries they seem to be withing the law. If you have case law to dispute my point please let me know...."

I live in France, I have an Orange France contract. If I buy a Ford in France, the warranty applies in Germany if the car breaks down.

Phones are sold as GSM phones which implies a lot of attributes - one of which is the ability to work with any GSM compatible SIM card.

So Apple and Orange are not clear of an obligation having sold me a GSM unlocked phone. I am not seeking Apple UK support. I have paid in France for a product that DOES NOT work as advertised.

Orange are clearly selling the phone with an additional payable feature -- that of SIM unlocking.

You logic is flawed. If I buy a phone from Orange, and the phone does not work while roaming, Orange are obligated to support this feature or remove this from their literature and clearly state that the iphone is NOT a GSM phone and that the unlock DOES not work.

Orange have already made statements in the press that the phone is globally unlocked. So they and Apple must ensure that de facto this feature is useable.