Comments on: Belgian telecom operator Mobistar breaks new grounds in screwing up PR campaigns with iPhone launch

By: Michael Richardson

Michael Richardson — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:50:25 +0000

I am also an Expat and think I will skip Mobistar they are nowhere near as good as Proximus, my wife and all my friend s switched from Base and Mobistar to Proximus, so I did the same, their Blackberry servise is pretty good and Cheaper than Mobistar’s similar offering.

BTW Mobistar are rippong pople off, According to them they are selling the Phone without a contract Obligation. BS!! they refused to sell me a phone this morning cause I wouldn’t take a contract and they had 20 in stock. Check out their website: try to buy Without contract “OUT OF STOCK” now try buying with a contract, oops they are magically in stock again…

They say the 525Euro price tag is becauseanyone can buy the phone, Not true!! They are a monopoly just like O2 and other providers the only difference is that everywhere else in the world the I-phone with 24 month contract is 200 Euro (or Equiv) in belgium it is 525 Euro. I fail to see how that is legal, But then again this is Belgium.

By: Jen

Jen — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:29:57 +0000

I’m an American expat who just arrived in Brussels this weekend. I’m looking for a new mobile and would love to be able to get a non-linked iPhone (can’t get that in America), but maybe that’s not possible in Belgium any time soon either since I read that Mobistar will get exclusivity for at least a couple of months before the others can carry it. I also just read a short article on De Standaard’s homepage that indicates Mobistar is introducing iPhone today. Ik ben echt zo in de waar! Does anyone have any further info on availability?

De Staandard article: Mobistar stelt dinsdag iPhone voor
BRUSSEL – De Belgische telecom-operator Mobistar stelt dinsdag de iPhone 3G van Apple voor. Eerder had het bedrijf de voorstelling van het toestel verschoven naar ‘een latere datum’.

In eerste instantie had Mobistar een persconferentie voorzien voor 4 juli. Die werd uitgesteld omdat de voorbereiding van de commercialisering nog niet rond was.

Op 25 juni kondigde Mobistar aan dat het de exclusieve verdeler wordt van de iPhone 3G in België. dsl

By: gk

gk — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:27:46 +0000

I got a call 6 months ago. Mobistar wanted to know if I was still happy with their service and if I wanted to lower my expenses by signing a new contract.
I was happy, but I told them I would move to the mobile phone operator who offered me an iPhone.
Their reply: ah, ok, uhm, lots of people here in the office already have an iphone, they hacked it.
I told them I didn’t want an iphone I couldn’t upgrade and I wanted one with a gps.
I think I’m one of many who told Mobistar the same thing. Bring the iPhone to Belgium and sign me up!
So I disagree. it’s not really a failure.
And they didn’t screw it up.
When there’s no iPhone in Belgium on 11 July it will be Apple who screwed up.
Apple is the one who first made the announcement.
But we all knew it’s not legal to sell an a phone and a service in Belgium.
So what was Apple thinking?

I own several Apple products. When the iPhone comes out and it costs € 600 I will buy it.
And I’m going to stay with Mobistar. That’s what I call goodwill.
BUT when Google’s Android platform becomes available on some good looking smartphones then there’s no way I’m going to stick to my iPhone.
Apple ain’t open enough and all they care about is a lock in and your money.
I’m not saying Google is all that but Android is the way to go and the iphone platform isn’t.
If anything I would say Apple better think this through or they will be the ones who end up getting old Microsoft’s reputation.

By: links for 2008-07-04 « Schedelbeuk

links for 2008-07-04 « Schedelbeuk — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:33:10 +0000

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By: Shahways Romani

Shahways Romani — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:23:30 +0000

I was so kind to forward this article to Miss Patti Verdoodt, PR Manager of Mobistar … so perhaps they weren’t reading the article, but by now they most definitely will be :)

By: Robin Wauters

Robin Wauters — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:07:03 +0000

Ok guys, post is updated, my bad on the Mobistar 3G error. Not really relevant for what this article is about, though :)

By: Steven Verbruggen

Steven Verbruggen — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:42:28 +0000

Mobistar does support 3G these days .. not only recent even. I don’t know where you got this information, but it’s just wrong. No full coverage, that’s true. On the other hand: sometimes it’s even 3.5G (Guess the iphone won’t support this though :))

But one step at the time anyway: first convince people to use data in Belgium, and than we’ll talk again ;)

By: Mich

Mich — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:41:38 +0000

Mobistar has 3G. The only one that doesn’t is BASE that uses EDGE.

By: Bart

Bart — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:35:41 +0000

@Robin: Mobistar is a bad communicator, that’s true. And it seems you’re not biased :) I own an iPod too.

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:17:02 +0000

First Veerle, now you :p forget flemish influential bloggers, mobi-fail is going worldwide baby! :d As it should be.