unlocked iPhone from France

[iPave]

I'm going to France for a short trip and I'm considering about buying unlocked iPhone from there. If I remember right, the first generation "unlocked" iPhone was locked to work only with French sim cards. Is the 3G model country-locked in the same way?

 

[goosnarrggh]

I'm going to France for a short trip and I'm considering about buying unlocked iPhone from there. If I remember right, the first generation "unlocked" iPhone was locked to work only with French sim cards. Is the 3G model country-locked in the same way?

To the best of my research abilities, it appears that the phones were not country-locked in the traditional sense of the word (ie. rejecting SIM cards with the wrong country code, and staying on the "Invalid SIM" screen).

Rather, the initial firmware shipped on unlocked French iPhones (version 1.1.2) was crippled (buggy) - it didn't display the "Invalid SIM" screen, but it then crashed when you tried to place a phone call or send a SMS.

Apparently this was repaired in firmware version 1.1.3.
Reference:
http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2008/01/15/breaking-legally-unlocked-iphones-re-locked-by-iphone-113/

(See especially the Update in the second half of the article.)