Hi All

Can you purchase an iPhone in an apple Apple Store (UK or States) and then request a Sim from Orange in France or T-Mobile in Germany for activation in that country?

I have been investigating this and it appears that YOU CANNOT purchase outside the country where you intend to use it! a

Is this Legal under EU law?

just bumping thread

Originally Posted by tiny_r

just bumping thread

NO you can not. it is a direct of Apple s marketing agreement with AT&T t-Mobile.

My Brother in Law with a UK phone wanted an Orange SIM, but Orange reused to unlock it officially. However, there is nothing stopping an unlock and just adding a SIM from the country of choice.

Originally Posted by tiny_r

Hi All

Can you purchase an iPhone in an apple Apple Store (UK or States) and then request a Sim from Orange in France or T-Mobile in Germany for activation in that country?

I have been investigating this and it appears that YOU CANNOT purchase outside the country where you intend to use it! a

Is this Legal under EU law?

If you buy an iPhone from the country that has it on sale and bring it to for example the UK - lets say you buy a US phone and bring it to the UK - then stick an iPhone O2 contract SIM in the phone then you would be able to activate it on an official tariff - except of course I doubt Apple would warranty it as it was not bought in the country you have the contract in.

However technically iTunes does NOT differentiate between when the phone is from - it simply sees the SIM and trys to activate is according to the SIM that is in the phone.

O2 give out FREE iPhone SIMs if you go and ask for one in a O2 shop as it says on their site for if you sell your iPhone to someone else... so thats not a problem. I am guessing if you said you bought an iPhone from someone and it didn't have a SIM they would give you one but I would go to an Orange or T-Mobile (as appropriate for the country shop!).

You MAY have to unlock your phone - I know we have had a debate on this and I am yet to see conclusive evidence but I personally believe that as long as the SIM in the phone is an official iPhone SIM then the phone does NOT need to be unlocked and will work with any official iPhone SIM no matter what country it is from.

But you may have to unlock it if I am wrong - but either way - you can still officially activate it even if its unlocked and I know that for a fact as I have a US unlocked iPhone with an O2 SIM and everytime I update it iTunes wants to activate it officially - so that WILL work!