France Telecom's wireless carrier Orange will be the exclusive carrier of the Apple iPhone in France, both companies announced Tuesday.
The 8GB iPhone will become available in France on November 29 for 399 euros (including VAT) with any Orange-dedicated rate plan subscription, according to the joint company statement.
Didier Lombard, chief executive officer of France Telecom, had told reporters at a September event in Hanoi that his company's Orange brand wireless service was the chosen partner. Today's news release confirms this.
As in the states, French iPhone owners will have access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. The mobile version of Apple's iTunes store allows people to directly download songs to their iPhone without the need for a computer.
Earlier today Apple dropped the price of its DRM-free songs on the iTunes store from $1.29 to 99 cents. It also announced the release date of October 26 for "Leopard," Apple's new Mac OS X operating system.
Apple has chosen T-Mobile, O2, and Orange as its European launch partners for the iPhone after wrangling a revenue-sharing agreement, according to the Financial Times.
The four companies are set to announce their partnership by the end of the month, the report said. The deals would require the carriers to share 10 percent of all revenue from voice and data services over the iPhone with Apple, according to the report. Apple has a revenue-sharing agreement in place with AT&T, the exclusive iPhone carrier in the U.S.
No new details surfaced in the report about the type of iPhone that would hit Europe, but most industry observers think Apple has a 3G model in mind for across the pond. T-Mobile provides mobile service to Germany, Orange operates in France, and O2 is based in the U.K.
Apple has said it wants to launch the iPhone in Europe by the end of this year. Tim Cook, the company's chief operating officer, mentioned that Apple wants to start in Europe with "a few major countries," and France, Germany, and the U.K. probably fall into that category.
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