Iphone runs into trouble in France

If they plan to sell the Iphone in Belgium, they will have worse problems. It is in Belgium forbidden to lock a phone to a specific provider. Any phone bought from one provider always can work with a SIM from another provider.

Filip

Thats' what Jobs' mob is going to hit with their heads is they are so dumb to try to push those unbelievably restrictive ideas. This is Europe and we know phones ;) 60 year old people know you can unlock, hack and do anything with mobile phones. I myself work in telco dev firm and know that for Apple to push such a scheme, it would cash a lot, and I mean "a lot" of dough. Because any kind of deal would not be secure enough for telecoms to go through.

Maybe if they flogged an Ipod nano free in the package, maybe then :) But not all hacks like Apple here, not do people like to pay premium for such gadgets when you have similar products around.

Tricky very this EU is, Luke...

:D

Indeed, great article, American companies don't understand that Europeans use common sense and are not braindead consumers. Great stuff. Hopefully they'll get sued for insulting the European sober mind with their schemes.

Nope, I guess there's more than France (and Belgium): count Italy as well... you can sell branded phones here, sure! But they gotta work with any provider....

Europe is sometimes referred to as a place of commies, but maybe this is just a place where (from time to time) the citiziens get more protection.

from wikipedia:

UK network providers are permitted to charge a fee for releasing the unlock code. This has prompted smaller businesses to offer cut price unlocking on the UK’s High Streets, marketplaces and car boot sales.

In Belgium, the law doesn't allow sale of locked phones. All phones as a result are sold unlocked even if they feature a network's logo on their case.

In The Netherlands and Spain, providers must provide unlocking codes, but can charge a fee for this during the first 12 months after purchase; the unlocking code must be provided at no cost after this period of time.Source (in Dutch)

Hong Kong carriers are allowed to sell locked mobile phones. The Hong Kong Telecommunications Authority hasn't revised their 1997 ruling which allowed SIM locking.

http://www.ofta.gov.hk/en/tas/tas-bs-mobile.html

In Finland carriers are not allowed to sell locked mobile phones, except for 3G handsets.

In the United States, the two national GSM carriers, T-Mobile and AT&T Mobility will unlock your handset if you have an active account in good standing for at least 90 days [1]. This is a change in practice, as before merging with Cingular, AT&T Wireless was known for never unlocking handsets.

In Australia, carriers can choose whether to sim lock handsets or not, and usually tend to only sim lock pay as you go (prepaid) handsets. This is purely to prevent a consumer buying a subsidised handset and then selling it as sim free. Most carriers except Vodafone charge a fee for the unlock code / instructions, and it can vary from $27.95 (Telstra, after 6 months ownership) to a whopping $199 (three) provided the handset is not marked as "permenantly locked". Three labels a handset permenantly locked because Three has not bought the unlock codes from the manufacturer (ex: Nokia 6280). The Vodafone network will unlock a handset free of charge after 48 hours of ownership via this page on their website. Usually prepaid handsets in Australia are less desirable, and the phone would normally be discarded should the consumer forget to keep it active, wants a better handset, or moves to a different carrier. These prices are in $AUD. Some of the carriers allow you to use top up credit instead of a cash/credit card payment to cover the unlocking charge.

Most planned (billed) phones are sim lock free in Australia.

I just love these US versus EU fights :D lol

USofA is always bragging about "freedom" of everything, but the truth is we EU guys have more personal rights than anyone...

Just look what EU is doing to Microsoft! and if Apple think they are gonna get off easily... think again.

I'm glad to hear consumers are so much more enlightened in the EU then us poor clods in the the US. However it appears your manners are no better and you have the same capacity to make sweeping generalizations.

For the records there are more than a few of us who do not feel the urge to invest in an iPhone and are more than happy to see M$ get taken down a notch.

Restricting how business can be conducted has nothing to do with individual freedom -- its just state controlled anti-competitive behavior. Individuals in the US have the "right" to buy a phone or not from any carrier they choose and under the terms that they are willing to sign up to. Businesses in the US may offer to sell products and services (phones) under just about any condition that they choose. Competitive technologies, such as GSM and CDMA are available in the US (unlike the EU) so that if a service provider fails to offer a "compelling" product, then the consumer can go elsewhere. Don't mistake lesafair laws with lack of freedom.

... at least they don't have to wait 6+ months to pay twice as much. As for "freedom" you don't have to have an iPhone to call someone (there are plenty of unlocked phones available), but if you want one you know how to get one.

At least we have the freedom to choose to be cattle.

"Hopefully they'll get sued for insulting the European sober mind"

Now that would be beautiful. With Tom Cruise as the young, naive, determined to win kind of guy, and Jack Nicholson as Steve Jobs.

And as far as competition goes, having both GSM and CDMA on the market must be why the coverage s*cks so much.

yours
never-been-without-coverage-anywhere-in-europe
truly

Lord Moon

I'm a New Yorker and I can attest that this is an utter and complete bullcrap. CDMA and GSM "competition" - BTW the whole idea is nonsense, they don't compete at all, only providers do and even they compete only regionally, sometimes mixing and matching technologies as needed - did NOTHING good except our mobile netwiorks are in FAR WORSE SHAPE than European ones - don't even consider highly sophisticated Asian ones -, solidified by the decisions of our totally corrupt FCC.
Calling consumer protection 'anti-business' is the TYPICAL sign a typical brain-washed American - the end-product of decade(s) of corporate marketing BS, driven by sheer greed.
Just few examples how far we got with these 'great' and so-called 'business-friendly' laws we have:
- US internet service offerings are behind European ones, FAR behind Asian services - systems is based on LEGALIZED MONOPOLIES which are presented as "competitive" areas, backed by FAKE STATS provided by FCC (it's more than dangerous to let them play their primitive game with zip codes to hide the truth from Congress) 
- US cable companies maintained all their exclusive areas, FCC NEVER pressured them
- US TV programming the most overpriced crap in the world - based on mandatory bundling of otherwise completely trash channels
- US telecoms now got EXEMPTED for spying on their customers without court rulings
etc.
Your whole point of 'you have the right to sign-up or not' is the utter mockery of freedom. You Sir, just proved you have no freakin clue about freedom, that's for sure - I wonder if you would vote for more and more 'business friendly' laws as Bush keeps pushing for these predatory *ir*regulations.

Jobs and Apple execs are idiots.

They could make more money if the Iphone was unlocked.

Are they so stupid that they can't see that?

And why would any consumer think being locked into one carrier is a good deal?

you know - the one about apples & oranges...

Funny how they can't seem to remember getting into a good deal of trouble with France's government not too long ago over the Ipod, Itunes and DRM.

free commerce...
sure, maybe there's a bit of propaganda and a lot of people drink it like their life depends on it...
we've (US citizens) got our share of political correctness bs and parents that would keep their children in plastic bubbles, too, though.
nothing like good ole socialism to choke us all :)

Oh please. Why do US Americans insist on sucking up like such as to the big business? Is it because some of us don't have maps? Anyway, you're mistaking freedom for the individual for freedom for the big business to restrict and strangle the market in their own way. I know that you think that businesses know best and the "market will decide," but it doesn't work that way. A business or corporation will grow to monopolistic proportions and set the market to benefit themselves. That is what iApple is trying to do with its iPhone, fortunately for us, they're too inept to be important outside of fanboy contests. But we're left with a system that allows large businesses to sell on their own terms with little or no protection for the consumer. I don't know *why* some USers get all starry-eyed and stand up for large, abusive corporations like a battered wife who insists that "[she] started it," but maybe occasionally gets a vicarious thrill out of provoking him to beat up some other idiot at a bar.

It is quite understandable that, at this point in time, citizens of the USA are relatively thin-skinned when it comes to mentioning freedom.
Long the champions of world freedom, they already broke out in goosebumps if anyone tried to say that elsewhere there were countries that were just as free, if in a different manner.
But the American mentality simply cannot accept freedom in any other form than holding a big gun in hand, preferably an automatic.
And now, what with Guantanamo, the revocation of the Geneva Convention, and a mile-long series of proof that their government is lying its people and to the entire world and spying on everyone it can, inside and out, without any judicial oversight whatsoever, well it is understandable that they are even more prone to Pavlovian reactions when mentioning freedom.
So let it be known : nowhere in the world is anyone as free as an American !
Meanwhile, the rest of us are just fine, thank you. No guns, identity cards and no phone taps or secret prisons.
Pity us, you mighty champions of freedom, you.

Since we entered the realm of freedom, it is advisable for Amers to think again on commenting this topic, your rights and democracy is more than in a blur and you're in no position to be talking of having more or being in a better position. My soon to be was there for 7 years so I know how mesmerised you are by the US of A, and how nothing else exists for the majority. Any a few of you enlightened out there don't make any bit of difference really...

It's not all flowers here in the EU either, but US... ccc...

Alas, this is not a political argument people, so please, stick to the story :) And the story goes that Apple thinks that it can flog its' dirty tricks here and nobody would notice... yeah right...

So, in Europe you're free to buy an unlocked iPhone, but will be thrown in jail for making an internet post 'inciting racial hatred' (by whose definition we're not told), and aren't allowed to buy anything associated with Naziism (which presumably includes the Reich's models of old racing cars); it's illegal to possess pornography which is randomly disliked by the law, and it's illegal to buy a copy of 'Manhunt 2' because your parents^H^H^H^H^H^Hlegislators think it will make you go kill someone.

Keep your damned iPhones. I'll take my freedom of thought - and if my government tries to take it back at least I have a constitution that has generally proved useful despite attempts to the contrary (we survived the Alien and Sedition act and we'll survive Bush II).

And if all else fails, at least I can hole up in some ranch and go down in a hail of gunfire, instead of bending over for the nanny state to protect me from anything that might upset the granny down the street.