While executives from within France Telecom continue to complain to the French telecoms regulator about its loss of exclusivity, the country's smallest operator, Bouygues Telecom, has outlined the monthly tariff plans for when it starts selling Apple's iPhone in early April.
Despite France Telecom accusing Bouygues Telecom of having an inadequate 3G network to support the iPhone, the company said it will launch the handset next month using monthly plans based upon a two-year contract. All of the plans, which range from €37.90 to €76.90, include unlimited data, SMS and email, but differ in the amount of voice minutes. It is also offering the iPhone with a Universal Music Mobile bundle for €24.90 a month on a two-year contract, which is aimed at younger consumers; this plan includes unlimited SMS, data and email, but only 1.5 hours of voice a month.
Orange France is said to have earned €220 million from 3G iPhone sales during the period from its July 18 launch to November 5, according to the French competition council. Orange itself said it had sold 450,000 of the handsets from its July launch to December and another 210,000 phones over the Christmas holiday period.
Recently, O2 UK has confirmed it would continue to be the exclusive distributor of the iPhone despite the contract coming up for renewal later this year. The company is thought to have benefited significantly from the uptake--said to be over one million handsets--together with a huge increase in data traffic generated by iPhone users.
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Washington Post
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