We talked to an employee at Orange in Paris about details of their agreement with Apple to carry Apple iPhone.

1. He reiterated that Apple is going to get 10% of the revenue from Orange. However, French Law states that after 6 months, you can take your phone to another provider (you can also keep your number - like in the US). The initial provider must allow the phone to be moved and provide whatever access codes necessary to move it. The iPhone will still be sold with a 2 year plan…so that will be interesting to see play out.

Because of this, we speculate Apple may only collect from Orange for 6 months. Apple and Orange may get around this at least in the short-term by offering only 2-year plans, but after 6 months a user could pay an early termination fee and move on. Additionally, the illegal unlocking of iPhones could therefore be a significant revenue risk for Apple, since operators other than Orange would, by law, have the right to have the iPhone on their network. The link below has more information about the French law and its implications.

Le déverrouillage d’un terminal

Le verrouillage de la carte SIM est un procédé autorisé en France pour dissuader les fraudeurs et les voleurs d’écouler les terminaux en France ou à l’étranger. Il empêche d’utiliser un terminal sur un autre réseau que celui qui a fourni la carte SIM. Néanmoins, passé un délai de 6 mois, les opérateurs sont tenus de fournir gratuitement le code permettant au client, sur simple demande de sa part, de déverrouiller l’appareil.

Or for you Anglophiles: Unlocking a mobile device

Locking a SIM card is an authorized procedure in France to dissuade from the fraudulent selling of mobile devices in France or abroad. It prevents the use of a device on a network other than that which provided the SIM card. Nevertheless, after a period of 6 months, operators are to freely provide the code which permits the consumer, upon a simple request on his part, to unlock the device.

2. Germany will likely be around a month ahead of France in the rollout. The source speculated a November rollout for TMobile in Germany and a holiday rollout in France. O2s rollout in the UK was not known first-hand but will also likely be ahead of France.

3. The iPhone will be 3G in Europe. This means it will be a different hardware device than that of the American model. There was no mention of a GPS or memory differences – not that those won’t come out. This confers with this report which lays out the case by showing the huge investment in network - $8Billion.

4. The EU has different laws and regulations about closed operating systems - which means that Apple’s embedded iPhone OSX will have to be made available to developers - it already is in hacked form. Because, in Europe, it is legal to install applications on the OS, developers can sell and distribute their wares, without worry about being sued by Apple Legal for copyright violations. This will certainly open the door to more third party applications.

5. He mentioned the possibility that Orange would also be able to carry the iPhone in the UK, as it was originally a UK-based company (until bought out by France Telecom in 2000) and still operates a subsidiary there. Also, EU laws about roaming price caps for voice and data that may make the national borders issue moot, anyway. http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l24276.htm

It is very likely that Apple could announce the terms of the deal with the European carriers at Berlin’s IFA Consumer Electronics show in Berlin (August 31st – September 5th). Our bets are on next month’s Apple Expo in Paris. (September 25-29th). It is not known if they plan on releasing a 3G version of the iPhone Stateside, alongside the European edition. We can only hope!

Big Thanks to 9to5mac

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