Apple Ordered to Let All Carriers Sell iPhone in France

Written on 17th December 2008                                                                                                              COMMENT
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.

The French competition regulator has ordered Apple to allow all French mobile phone carriers to sell the iPhone, as opposed to just Orange which is a subsidiary of France Telecom.

The competition regulator said Apple’s exclusive arrangement with Orange posed a “serious and immediate threat” to competition in the mobile telecommunications sector and increased costs for mobile phone users looking to change mobile phone carriers.

Bouygues Telecom SA, the third largest mobile operator in France, filed a complaint in September and today the Regulators have taken this action as a ‘protective measure’ while it continues its investigation.

Both SFR (the second-largest carrier in France) and Bouygues Telecom (the third largest) have (naturally) welcomed the decision and hope to begin selling the handsets soon.

via Business Week / photo credit