Originally Posted by Bunker

I'm not a resident of France, nor do I have a residence in France. I'm a belgian with an belgian Id-card.

That was the only thing they needed to sell me an Iphone. (and money of course)

Isn't Belgium a province of France? :p
Just joking.
As far as I heard so far, the Orange F personell seems to be "reasonable" with customers from Belgium and Switzerland. I have TWO confirmed reports of one German and one guy from the Netherlands who tried to buy an unlocked iPhone but have been declined because they had only a D/NL id.
It would be interesting to hear from swiss buyers(any?).

US iPhones will NOT be unlocked by Orange F, even not for customers.
You can however get the iPhone plan (tariff) for your unlocked(hacked!) US iPhone, same thing here in Germany. They also offer to convert your old contract incl. phone number to the new iPhone tariffs.

Another hint: a German tried to buy an unlocked Orange F iPhone but they immediately told him that they ran out of stock and they only have contract iPhones available. This is pure BS since the unlocked and the locked iPhone are THE SAME, there is no difference since the unlock happens with iTunes.
If you hear this story when trying to buy an iPhone over there, just don't buy it, it is a lie.

Originally Posted by 997TT

US iPhones will NOT be unlocked by Orange F, even not for customers.
You can however get the iPhone plan (tariff) for your unlocked(hacked!) US iPhone, same thing here in Germany. They also offer to convert your old contract incl. phone number to the new iPhone tariffs.

As a follow-up to my previous post(s), the frenchiphone.com forum discussion about getting a US iPhone unlocked if you sign up for an Orange France service plan has grown to about 8 pages, and although my French ain't great, there are many doubters. And I always have personally doubted that Orange France would do it (doesn't make economic sense for them), so I wouldn't plan on spending those high-flying euros to buy the cheap, locked US phone with the hope of bringing it home to France to unlock.

Interesting about the problems some foreigners have had trying to buy an unlocked iPhone -- given the hype surrounding this launch (I note that it was the lead article on yesterday's Le Monde website) I would expect inconsistent results from Orange France personnel until everyone settles down into a routine. Then we'll really know what they're willing to do or to whom they are willing to sell, and whether I need to retain French attorneys to lead the legal charge for unlocked iPhones for the masses! Bastille Day Part Deux!

Originally Posted by 997TT

Have YOU bought one as a non french national/resident? :p
Please don't insult me by saying I made false claims. Thanks.

There was no insult intended, simply that your source claimed something completely untrue before that's all. Anyone claiming to be denied sale is an idiot and does not know how the law works. Their French must have been atrocious and the shop keeper said whatever possible to get them out of their face (yes, it's France).

You cannot deny sale on nationality. This was thoroughly covered by me and many other posters in another thread. Any requirements for papers are solely for the contract, not to buy the phone. Yes ID will be necessary if paying with card to comply with law, but that's far from your previous statement regarding passports.

Bumping this thread and looking for anyone (especially non-French nationals) who has purchased an unlocked iPhone in France to describe their experience there!

Thanks!

Mais fais attention parce que moi on m'a dit qu'il fallait faire activer l'iphone par Orange avant qu'il soit désimlockable par Orange.
Moi j'attend des retours de personnes qui ont demandé à faire désimlocker leur iphone US bootloader 4.6 avant de faire quoique ce soit
Wait and see

This is the last post on that forum. Ideas are still confused and *nobody* can report a proper first person experience.
Few points still have to be clearified: first of all (the mother of all questions) whether someone can buy an iPhone BL 4.6 and have it unlocked by Orange.
The answer seems to be YES but only if you activate it with Orange (read above)...this sounds quite silly and cryptic to me, if someone has an explanation please post.
Second, IF you can, my big question is: my nice US iPhone will still be covered by a warranty, but will it be valid only in the shop I bought it (NY, and I live in Switz) or can I bring it to any bloody apple shop?

Cheers!

I'm one step closer to reaching the goal of unlocking the iPhone legally by Orange.

So first I'll give a quick round up.

At the launch wednesday night, there were me as a belgian and 2 of my belgian friends, we all bought an iPhone and only needed to show our id's which got accepted without any problem.

The saga:

Wednesday evening: went to the Orange shop, could buy a nude iPhone (with mobicarte) for 650 euro. The shop attendants told us to call the Orange support line to unlock the phone, they said you could pay by credit card. (I thought nice). Because the computer system doesn't allow non-french addresses, the attendant entered the shops address.
Thursday: I called Orange, they told me, you need to charge your mobicarte for 100 euro, so we can credit your account, in order to retrieve the unlock fee. You can only recharge your mobicarte (in the first month) by buying a recharge card in France, no way of paying with credit card or debet card...
Saturday: I got an recharge card, charged my Orange number with 100 euro of credit. Called tech support again. They told me, we'll send you a letter to the address entered during the sale. (Damm, that's the Orange shop in France) No way of sending that letter to a foreign address or send it by e-mail or something.
Monday: Still waiting for the Orange shop to call that the letter has arrived, untill now, there is still no credit removed from my mobicarte.
....


Balance untill now:

Money spent: 650 euro for the iPhone + 100 euro for the recharge card
Trips to France: 2 untill now, 1 more for sure.

when I have more news I'll post it again.

You do not actually need to receive the letter, it is just a notice that the unlock is ready. I phoned Service Client Wednesday night, and again today, and they explained no action is required on receipt of the letter. It is just a way to remind users to connect the phone via iTunes to get the official unlock. I was told 7 days is the wait.

I am on a contract with Orange. I was stupid when I activated phone, I have two itunes accounts, one UK and one French , I should have tried to activate via the UK itunes to see of that worked.

maybe someone who buys an iPhone can tell us does it really require a french itunes account.

Oh baby!

Unlocked! I just tried it. Here's the deal. Turn off phone. Change SIM. Turn on phone while docked. Tells you wrong SIM. The iTunes starts - you get a page "Phone now unlocked"

I am now in SFR - using a Vodafone DE SIM in France. Just got my SFR welcome to France text!

Oh Joy!

So the wait was Wednesday to Friday. I am wondering was the second call to Service Client the one that kicked it off.

The staff of course are very uncertain about the process. I got the impression that not a lot of people are paying to unlock.

OK

Further update. Shut down phone. Disconnected from Dock, swapped back to Orange SIM. Did not require a connection to iTunes to use. An old posting regarding German unlocks implied you needed to connect to iTunes each time you changed SIM.

This is not the case here.

I have no clue how this works... but I'm just wondering if it is possible to capture, in some way, what Itunes is doing during the unlocking process?

Maybe if this is successfully captured, we can further understand what is being done to unlock the phone and apply this process to US phones as well.