Filed under: Apple Corporate, iPhone
In France, Apple must let other carriers sell iPhone
The French government's competition watchdog told Apple that it must allow other carriers besides Orange to offer the iPhone. Orange is a subsidiary of France Telecom.
In September, Orange competitor Bouygues Telecom SA filed a complaint with the Competition Council about the exclusivity agreement. While a decision hasn't been reached on the merit of Bouygues' argument, today's order was a "protective measure" as the Council continues its investigation, likely to take a year or more.
Both SFR (the second-largest carrier in France) and Bouygues Telecom (the third largest) hope to begin selling the handsets soon.
In a statement, the Competition Council said that the Apple-Orange agreement posed a "serious and immediate threat" to competition among carriers, and higher costs for customers.
France Telecom plans to appeal the decision.
[Via BusinessWeek and Reuters.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Yazdgerd said 2:36PM on 12-17-2008
Great news, well done French watchdog!
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Greenie said 2:52PM on 12-17-2008
That's crazy that a government can mandate that. I wonder if there is precedent with other phones.
I also wonder if the other carriers are prepared with the visual voicemail backend.
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Brian said 2:59PM on 12-17-2008
The decision has nothing to do with the ability to provide visual voicemail.
This is a win for consumers.
NickP said 3:32PM on 12-17-2008
Uhhh, take a look here, MANY iPhone carriers don't even support Visual Voicemail. iPhone can support standard voicemail systems just fine.
See here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1937
note the LACK of visual voicemail on many carriers????
waiownsyou said 2:55PM on 12-17-2008
LOL, Apple-Orange agreement. Epic name.
Anywho, I wish the US had more laws like that. I would love a CDMA iPhone 3G (EVDO?) on Verizon.
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Paul said 3:22PM on 12-17-2008
I doubt even in France that Apple could be forced to produce an iPhone that uses a totally different cellphone technology. The iPhone is GSM, all networks in Europe are GSM, so allowing other providers to sell the iPhone is easy.
Vanillacide said 3:35PM on 12-17-2008
82% of of the global mobile market uses GSM (Global System for Mobile communication), not just Europe, CDMA is pretty much only used in some parts of USA. Why should any global corporate care about it?
Duscrom said 7:04PM on 12-17-2008
Hell yeah, Or CDMA iPhone on my SERO plan. Sprint already has a Visual Voicemail back-end that they use on the Instinct. Give me a CDMA iPhone running EVDO Rev A. and I'll pay Apple $400 for an 8GB model of that.
Jose said 11:54PM on 12-17-2008
Vanillacile, CDMA is also used in Canada and certain Asian countries.
Daniel said 3:24PM on 12-17-2008
Greenie, it's called anti-monopoly, something the US really needs but you can bet will never have!
See this is the fun part about the European Union, they don't take kindly to companies acting like bullies.
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brian said 4:59PM on 12-17-2008
the iphone is the only mobile phone sold in france? wow.. youre right! apple *does* hold a monopoly!
Sora said 5:46PM on 12-17-2008
Brian, it's not Apple with the monopoly, it's Orange...The iPhone is so popular that having just one carrier have it would be detrimental to competition between carriers, which is why they mandated this in the first place.
FG said 3:34PM on 12-17-2008
To say Apple has a monopoly is to say that there is an industry (not product, but industry!) called Apple iPhone, because certainly there are many other competitors in either the web-surfacing cell phone, or touch-screen cell phone industries.
Personally, I hope apple pulls the iPhone from France and gives them the three-fingered salute.
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SadPanda said 3:38PM on 12-17-2008
the same laws apply in Germany and even in f***king Belgium. You can buy iPhone there at a whole bunch of stores without any kind of simlock.
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LD said 3:50PM on 12-17-2008
Are there any exclusive phones with French carriers? Like an exclusive model of Nokia or Blackberry or anything?
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bibi-pov said 4:57PM on 12-17-2008
The problem here is that while the other carriers may want the iPhone customer's money, they certainly don't want them per se. For instance, SFR (#2) is a subsidary of Vodaphone (Europe's #1) and both have a track record of making phones with custom firmwares which have restricted users ability to use their phones, the V series (V as in Vandalized :) ). On top of that they either give you "unlimited" data access to their mobile internet portal (read expensive services with a crappy interface) or they charge you an arm and a leg for real internet access: 1€ for a MB with access starting a 5€ a month with 10MB included. That's on top of your regular voice plan, the cheapest starting at 30€ for one hour. On the other hand Orange gives you a real unlimited access to the real Internet with the iPhone plan. It's more than 35€ at +49€ but you get +2 hours of voice, +50 SMSs and data. So you'll be the judge, but informed customers wont flock to the competition anyway, it's more a pose than anything else...
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Desaparecido said 5:16PM on 12-17-2008
Seriously, this is why Europe is amazing. Europe is so amazingly progressive while we're stuck with Jesus freaks who don't want to effin allow gays to marry. Seriously, America needs to step up and embrace the 21st century's economic-political structure. Way to go, France!
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Bozark67 said 8:22PM on 12-17-2008
Absolutely. Jesus freaks who don't want to effin allow gays to marry are EXACTLY the people behind Apple's marketing plans. Completely and totally.
Where did you get your education -- a cracker jack box?!?!
Desaparecido said 9:01PM on 12-17-2008
Honey, I wasn't judging Apple's marketing team, merely our laissez-faire perspective of corporate responsabilities to the consumer. But thanks for the grown-up and fabulously educated insult.
Andrew Timson said 11:01PM on 12-17-2008
If the 21st century's economic-political structure involves government interfering with peoples' right to choose who they do business with, I'll stay firmly in the 20th century, thanks.