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Apple and Orange: iPhone France Negotiations, Unlocked iPhones

Wednesday October 10, 2007 1:48 pm PDT by Arnold Kim
During Steve Jobs' european tour last month, Apple announced partnerships with T-Mobile and O2 to provide the iPhone in both Germany and the UK. Notably absent, however, was the iPhone announcement for France. Orange had been long rumored to be the likely carrier for iPhone in France, and Orange even announced that they would indeed be the exclusive iPhone carrier. Apple, however, has remained silent on the topic.

One issue appears to be a French law that requires mobile phones to be unlocked after 6 months of contract. HardMac claims to have details on the current agreement between Apple and Orange regarding the iPhone distribution in France.

According to their sources, Apple will accept that an unlocked iPhone will be made available at the end of 6 months in France. If true, this would essentially open up a legitimate source of unlocked iPhones.
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nismo
Posted: 57 months ago
unlocked iphones for the win!
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Texas04
Posted: 57 months ago
YEAHHH!!! UNLOCKED iPHONES!!! WHOO HOO!!! FINALLY! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
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pacohaas
Posted: 57 months ago


. The


The what?
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thejadedmonkey
Posted: 57 months ago
seeing how the iPhone has a whole backend that needs to be used, couldn't Apple simply find a way for the phone to figure out it's location, and if it's not in france, to re-lock itself? I mean, if it's not in france, does french law still apply to it? (Nevermind the French business traveler who is taking his legitimately unlocked phone to the states, could apple do this?)
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SirOmega
Posted: 57 months ago
So then six months from November is next May.

I still expect Apple to do something to the phones to allow hinder or prevent import of the phones into the US (specialized firmware or something hardware based).
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saqibhasan
Posted: 57 months ago
Well from past experience, there will be a charge for unlocking the phone. Let's see how hefty that is.
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megfilmworks
Posted: 57 months ago
This would be great for travel to Europe, a legitimate unlock!
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carltabet
Posted: 57 months ago
On a day like this it just feels good to be French! :D
Not that I never feel proud about it.
Now all we need is a date for crying out loud.
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Devil's Refugee
Posted: 57 months ago
This is good news, but in 6 months there'll be a new model out in the US and the scramble to get hands on it will begin all over again, and v1 will be an unwanted cousin....
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Mars
Posted: 57 months ago

On a day like this it just feels good to be French! :D
Not that I never feel proud about it.
Now all we need is a date for crying out loud.


You really need to prepare to cry out loud? I'll give you one then; cry out loud on 02/11-08... Or tomorrow maybe?!
Or do you need to date someone to cry out loud?!
;):p
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