In a previous post, I discussed some of the shortcomings of New Zealand's broadband infrastructure. A lot of you gave some great responses, which led me to realize that although it's certainly not world-class, NZ's broadband isn't quite as bad overall as I thought - it's just my ISP isn't the greatest in the country, and it doesn't help matters that I don't live in a major city like Auckland or Wellington. When we first got here last July, we were kind of bewildered by pretty much everything (moving to a new country will do that to you), so we signed up for what seemed to be the best value for our money at the time. This turned out to entail a one-year commitment to Vodafone. Well, as it turns out, Vodafone NZ's broadband plans kind of stink compared to some other offerings people brought up, so we'll be ditching them for something better as soon as that commitment is over next month.

With my iPhone, however, I don't have the option of giving Vodafone the heave-ho for at least another 20 months. In fact, right now if you want to buy an iPhone in New Zealand, unless you're willing to jump through a lot of hoops and pay a lot more money, Vodafone is pretty much the only horse in town.

While some Kiwi commenters pointed out that broadband here isn't necessarily as terrible as I made it out to be, one thing they all agreed on was that the mobile phone pricing here is just barely short of criminal. No, let's not mince words: it is criminal. New Zealanders pay some of the highest mobile rates in the world, both for plans and for handsets. What we get for our money down here is pretty astonishing, and not in a good way.

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.]

China Mobile has asked Apple to remove Wi-Fi and 3G networking from the iPhone for its launch in China, according to Apple's Taiwanese manufacturing partner, Foxconn.

China Mobile is asking for the changes to make the phone less appealing to those who would unlock the phone and use it on its major rival's network: China Unicom.

China Mobile has been in sporadic talks with Apple since the original handset was launched last year. Apple agreed to potential revenue sharing, which got talks moving again in July.

Research companies don't doubt that the changes, along with robust Chinese language support, will help Apple's sales in the country. They estimate that there are 28 million potential customers in China.

[Via cellular-news.]