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Can a 3GS from Orange France work with ATT

S

ssajous

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 13, 2007
96
0
I have a 3GS without a SIM that was originally activated by Orange in France model number MC131NF. Got it from a friend who was able to convince his company to a 32 gig. I took it to the US without the SIM thinking that I could get it to work here.

So far I jailbroke it and unlocked it and put my SIM in there but it can never find the network. Without unlocking it it says that the SIM is not the original one it was activated with. Do I simply take it to ATT and tell them that I purchased a used phone and would like to go from my 3G to the 3GS?

Is there a risk that no matter what I do it will not work here in the US?
 
Only way to get it to work is jb and unlock it again. It will recognize the AT&T sim then. Maybe u didn't do it right the first time.
AT&T will not do anything with a foreign locked iPhone besides tell u to buy a new one and sign a 2 year contract with them.
 
Why don't you get an Orange France sim card and activate it, then you will have an officially unlocked iPhone and no need to hack it!
 
Applejuiced said:
That's false.
Even if he activates it with his official sim it will not work with any other sim besides orange France unless it's officially unlocked. And his is not.
Click to expand...

It generally just takes a phone call to get a French iPhone unlocked, perhaps the OP could ask his friend to make the call? iTunes automatically recognises the iPhones unlocked status once Apple receives the unlock request.
The whole process generally take 5 days.

Having pondered it a bit more, that does make absolute sense. I purchased a SFR (France) iPhone last week, which came locked, when doing a restore with a different sim I remember it wouldn't activate. Now that SFR have unlocked it, it works fine.

If you're friend arranges for the phone to be unlocked, you will no longer have activation issues.
 
Pretty sure I did it right

Applejuiced said:
Only way to get it to work is jb and unlock it again. It will recognize the AT&T sim then. Maybe u didn't do it right the first time.
AT&T will not do anything with a foreign locked iPhone besides tell u to buy a new one and sign a 2 year contract with them.
Click to expand...

I have never had issues with jailbreaking/unlocking, I have done it with 3 phones so far with no issue, I am not sure what I would be doing wrong with this one. When the AT&T SIM is in there it just keeps saying that it is searching...
 
eshroom said:
It generally just takes a phone call to get a French iPhone unlocked, perhaps the OP could ask his friend to make the call? iTunes automatically recognises the iPhones unlocked status once Apple receives the unlock request.
The whole process generally take 5 days.

Having pondered it a bit more, that does make absolute sense. I purchased a SFR (France) iPhone last week, which came locked, when doing a restore with a different sim I remember it wouldn't activate. Now that SFR have unlocked it, it works fine.

If you're friend arranges for the phone to be unlocked, you will no longer have activation issues.
Click to expand...

That's correct.
The original owner has to contact his carrier and have them officially unlock the headset.
 
ssajous said:
I have never had issues with jailbreaking/unlocking, I have done it with 3 phones so far with no issue, I am not sure what I would be doing wrong with this one. When the AT&T SIM is in there it just keeps saying that it is searching...
Click to expand...

It will work. Find a good tutorial and make sure you follow it step by step. It works for every iPhone.
 
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