iPhone 3GS activation issues with Orange France

I ordered an iPhone 3GS with Orange France and it arrived three weeks ago. I also requested my mobile phone number to be transferred to Orange from Bouygues Telecom, my previous provider. Transferring the number from one provider to the other takes about 2 weeks. In the meantime, Orange provides you with a temporary phone number you can use until the real one gets transferred.

One detail that stroke me is that even though Apple made a nice effort to reduce the size of the iPhone packaging in order to reduce its environmental impact, Orange France is shipping it a cardboard box about 12 times its size. Way to go Orange!

So I received the iPhone by mail. I inserted the SIM card and I activated it using iTunes, but couldn’t use it immediately because the line was not active yet. To prevent fraud, Orange France is sending an activation code by postal mail. When you get it you have to call an 0800 number, type in the code and normally the line should be activated. Sounds fair, I don’t mind that.

I received the letter containing the activation code a couple of days later and activated the line as per instructions. This is when the trouble started. As soon as I activated the line, the iPhone started to behave in a very weird way. After a reboot, the phone was joining the Orange 3G network but only to loose it about 30 seconds later. After loosing the connection the iPhone was displaying a “No SIM card installed message”.

I took the iPhone to an Orange shop in Le Mans and the people there told me there is nothing they can do. They could have gave a new SIM card, but that would’ve caused the transfer of my previous phone number to fail. They told me I should call Orange tech support to get help. And this is where it gets really hilarious: the Orange tech support service can only be reached from the Orange network or an Orange land line. So here I am with an Orange iPhone, which doesn’t work, being told that I have to call tech support, but I need a working Orange line for that…. That’s smart isn’t it? Way to go Orange France!

So I get back home. I tried to put the iPhone SIM card in an old vanilla phone I have at home, and it worked. I was able to place a call. Completely puzzled, I placed the SIM back in the iPhone and turned it back on and what do you know, it worked! The iPhone was joining Orange’s 3G network, I had internet access and I was able to place and receive calls using my temporary number. And it worked perfectly for two weeks. My old number got transferred as expected and everything was fine.

It worked until yesterday, when I was driving back home from vacation and all of a sudden I noticed my iPhone had lost connection and was displaying a “No Service” message. Which was weird because I was in the suburbs around Lyon, an area with excellent 3G coverage. I rebooted the iPhone and surprise: the “No SIM card installed” message was back! When I got back home I restored the iPhone’s factory setting using iTunes as per Orange’s trouble shooting guide, but things only got worth: after rebooting, the iPhone is displaying a message box saying: “Waiting for activation. This may take a while”. This message is replaced a few of seconds later by the “No SIM card installed” message. When I dismiss the “No SIM card installed” message box, the “Waiting for activation” one comes back up, but nothing happens, it stays up for ever.

So tomorrow I’ll take the iPhone back to an Orange shop, see if they manage to find a solution. In the mean time, I’m stranded with no phone.