France liberates Jesus Phone from Orange
Liberté, égalité, l'iPhone disponibilité
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On 18 September, French mobile-phone carrier Bouygues Telecoms complained to the country's competition council, charging that the agreement between Apple and Orange - the main brand of France Telecom - violates basic principles of competition.
Today, the competition council - the Conseil de la concurrence - agreed with Bouygues, a much smaller Orange competitor, and ordered that that exclusivity be immediately suspended, with the result that any French carrier, according to the ruling, is now able to offer l'iPhone.
According to CNNMoney.com, the council's reasoning was that the exclusive deal between Apple and Orange "by nature introduces a new factor of rigidity in a sector that already lacks competition." (A French-language PDF of the 48-page decision is available here).
The ruling is a temporary one, but will remain in place while the competition council studies the Bouygues Telecoms complaint in more detail. France Telecom, according to a report from AppleInsider, plans to appeal the ruling.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for their response to the ruling - but we assume they're not pleased. ®
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COMMENTS
Can't get away from the iPhone...
Christ if you ring up SFR you currently get "Mr Bluesky" blasted at you and them harping on about the iPhone.
Stop the madness, please!
Belgium Mobiles
You can only buy unlocked mobiles here in Belgium.
An Apple iPhone 8GB is € 525 (incl. vat) from www.Mobistar.be (exclusively). You can use it on any network anywhere but only Mobistar offer the special Apple services.
Belgium is a small country and so the citizens have to pay higher prices (you know this makes sense) than in larger countries such as German or Britain. In the case of mobiles you have to buy your own mobile at full price and then get a contract - both of these are expensive. The prices in the UK are only to be envied.
If Vodafone ever do get the iPhone (I am not moving to O2!) and I get one then I won't be able (afford) to use it here in Belgium if it is SIMlocked and I can't put my Belgian SIM in it.
@Kevin Whitefoot
> I get the point about consumer sovereignty but I don't see why it should supersede political sovereignty. (and neither deserve initial caps).
Does it look like politicians are in control of the world.. Or the economy?
Voting with your wallet means you can vote continually at a much finer granularity.
Directly boycotting companies you disapprove of is far more effective than continuing to give them your money whilst hoping the party you may or may not have voted for 4 years ago will agree on some kind of white paper outlining possible regulation of the practices in a few years time.
Surely cutting out this middleman wastes less taxpayers' money too, money that could be better spent on hospitals, schools, nuclear weapons, or bailing out banks.
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