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Orange in UK - make my JB/Unlocked 3GS 'official'?

T

TWHH

macrumors Maltese
Original poster
Jul 12, 2008
156
19
Hi there,

I bought an O2 PAYG 3GS and have unlocked it to work on Orange (as my company use Orange). When Orange become an official carrier for the iPhone will I be able to use an regular iTunes based firmware upgrade (using my existing Orange SIM) and make my phone 'legit'?

Asking my employer for a new SIM card (should legit iPhones on Orange need an 'iPhone SIM') is not an option (guess which company I work for - clue they are no stranger to the competition Apple give them!).

Although I don't have anything against Jailbreaking I'm thinking having a phone I can upgrade through iTunes without any worries would be a better option and give me access to thing like Push.

Does anyone know what the warranty status would be if you had bought a PAYG phone via O2 only to switch it to an 'official' Orange phone? I'm assuming it's a case of an iPhone is an iPhone is an iPhone, but then again...
 
No, the iPhone will still be locked to o2, and most probably when orange start selling iPhones the ones bought on an orange contract will be locked to orange and the o2 ones locked to o2.
Although the phone is available on other networks it will still be locked to the provider who subsidised the phone.
 
pauliphone said:
No, the iPhone will still be locked to o2, and most probably when orange start selling iPhones the ones bought on an orange contract will be locked to orange and the o2 ones locked to o2.
Although the phone is available on other networks it will still be locked to the provider who subsidised the phone.
Click to expand...

Not completely true, although we won't know until Orange start selling. If you buy almost any handset from either CPW or phones4U they are nearly always unlocked to all networks regardless of what network your new or upgraded contract is on except the iphone at the moment and that is purely because of the exclusivity contract with o2. :):)
 
For sure your phone will stay "factory locked" to O2, and Orange's will likewise be locked to Orange. It will always be that way until the legislation gets changed, which there's no sign of.
 
Well that's pants - I bought it as a Pay As You Go phone - no contract, no minimum amount of credit I had to buy in a given time period. It cost me £579, so hardly subsidised given an iPod Touch (with 64Gb) is £299.

So I've paid ~£280 for a GPS chip, a compass and phone functionality. But I've got half the capacity and a chip that's not capable of n wi-fi.

Struggling with the concept of me having a 'subsidised' phone.

Hmm.....
 
Your best bet then would be to sell the O2 phone via eBay and buy one from Orange.

However, most analysts seem to be guessing that O2 will retain exclusivity on the 3GS and you'll be limited to the 3G on Orange.

If you do want to sell it, keep it unlocked as it will have higher value (so no updating between now and selling it), AND if it's right that Orange do not get the 3GS, you'll be offering something rare - ie a 3GS that can work on Orange or Vodafone.

(And if you do sell it online, beware of overseas buyers trying to scam you. There are many threads about that in the archives here.)
 
Hmm, interesting. My iPhone is in perfect condition and I have all the packaging...

Vodafone announced today that they too will be selling the iPhone in the UK, so apart from T-Mobile (who are about to merge with Orange in the UK) that's almost all networks having it to sell (only the 'virtual networks' left without it).

Not sure how that will effect my price...

It would be nicer to have a 'legit' phone though

EDIT: Just checked ebay.co.uk. That looks like a murky world of so called 'Factory unlocked' and 'unlocked by Apple' promises!
 
Can't you get the phone unlocked from O2 once you finish your contract?

And if your not under contract, can't you still get it officially unlocked? seems kinda stupid to me if you cant
 
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