UPDATEx2: Orange officially confirms the plans below. The unlocked version of the iPhone is priced 649€ 749€ (or $649 for the device without any contract commitment but working only with Orange SIM cards + 100€ to unlock it before the six first months after the purchase).
UPDATE: During an interview for the French radio Europe 1, France Telecom's CEO, Didier Lombard confirmed the information below. He added that as many as 100 000 iPhones are expected to be sold in France by the end of the year. Meanwhile, translated iPhone ads are airing on French TV since late last week.
France Telecom's mobile sbsidiary, Orange, will offer to its France-based iPhone customers similar subscription plans to those announced in other European countries, reports on the Internet confirm.
A little more than a week before the official release of the iPhone in France, the French, Mac-centric site, MacGeneration [1] followed by the iPhone-centric FrenchiPhone [2] provide the details of Orange's subscription plans destined to iPhone customers.
The plans will be the following :
49€/mo Plan:
- 2 hours + 2 (late evening or week-end) hours of voice calls:
- 50 SMS
- 10 hours of Orange Wifi
- Unlimited VoiceMail, E-Mail and data
59€/mo Plan:
- 3 hours + 3 (late evening or week-end) hours of voice calls:
- 100 SMS
- 10 hours of Orange Wifi
- Unlimited VoiceMail, E-Mail and EDGE data
79€/mo Plan:
- 5 hours + 5 (late evening or week-end) hours of voice calls:
- 150 SMS
- 10 hours of Orange Wifi
- Unlimited VoiceMail, E-Mail and EDGE data
119€/mo Plan:
- 8 hours + 8 hours of voice calls:
- 1000 SMS
- 100 hours of Orange Wifi
- Unlimited VoiceMail, E-Mail and EDGE data
FrenchiPhone actually found all the information on Orange's plans by analysing closely Orange's iPhone dedicated site [3]. It appears that the site has unlinked yet sections which detail the whole Orange iPhone offering.
Though all the plans include unlimited Voicemail E-mail and data, Orange warns that it could take limiting measures for those who exceed 500MB of downloaded data.
Orange Wifi includes access to over 30 000 Wifi hotspots all over the world. However acces is limited to 10 hours per month only for the most affordable plans and 100 hours for the 119€/month plan.
Pricing implies the customer commits for two years, for a one year commitment, the customer will pay a monthly extra of 4,5€.
As the French law states, customers will be able to unlock their iPhone for free six months after their purchase but Orange will allow them to do that before that date for a 100€ charge.
MacGeneration also provides details on the availability of the iPhone. It is claimed that 20 200 iPhones will be in stock at Orange's stores during the first day of launch. The Paris, Champs Elysées store which is opening on November 28 (see picture posted by MacScoop here [4]) will have 1000 units.
Earlier in the month, MacScoop heard that Steve Jobs could come to France at the occasion of the iPhone launch in the country. It appears that Jobs already made the trip to France on November 9 though, or one day after we posted our story [4] and we don't know if Apple's CEO plans to make a second trip for the launch or if the information we obtained was innacurate regarding the date of his trip.
As MacScoop had predicted on this mid-August report [5], Orange has obtained exclusivity for the iPhone in France. The release is slated for November 29 though some stores may start selling it on the evening of November 28.