Vodafone iPhone 4 may be coming to Germany Oct. 28
Deutsche Telekom will lose its iPhone 4 exclusivity in Germany when Vodafone begins selling the smartphone on Oct. 28, a new report claims.
German Mac site Macerkopf.de received word Tuesday of Vodafone's plans (Google Translation) for an Oct. 28 iPhone 4 launch in Germany, ending the iPhone exclusivity of Deutsche Telekom. The iPhone 4 would come locked to the Vodafone network. According to the report, Vodafone would begin showing ads for the smartphone on Oct. 18.
The report also expects O2 to begin distributing an unlocked iPhone 4 in Germany soon, but no launch dates were given for O2.
Deutsche Telekom, which is T-Mobile's parent company, is Germany's largest mobile provider with 37 million customers in Germany. Second-place Vodafone has 34.9 million and O2 has 16.3 million.
Earlier reports had suggested that the iPhone would become multi-carrier as early as October.
For its part, Deutsche Telekom is preparing for the loss of iPhone exclusivity by offering discounts (Google Translation) on its plans. The T-Mobile iPhone 4 promotion launched last week with a 10 percent discount on monthly fees for the first year of the two-year contract.
Apple and carriers have faced opposition to the use of exclusive contracts in Europe. In 2007, a German court ordered Deutsche Telekom to sell the iPhone unlocked and without a contract after Vodafone filed a complaint.
"We want the iPhone to be available to everyone without being tied to a contract," said Vodafone Deutschland chief executive Friedrich Joussen.
In 2008, a French court ruled that an exclusive deal between Apple and France Telecom's Orange was in violation of local freedom of competition and pricing laws. After the ruling, the iPhone's market share in France jumped to the 40 percent range.
German Mac site Macerkopf.de received word Tuesday of Vodafone's plans (Google Translation) for an Oct. 28 iPhone 4 launch in Germany, ending the iPhone exclusivity of Deutsche Telekom. The iPhone 4 would come locked to the Vodafone network. According to the report, Vodafone would begin showing ads for the smartphone on Oct. 18.
The report also expects O2 to begin distributing an unlocked iPhone 4 in Germany soon, but no launch dates were given for O2.
Deutsche Telekom, which is T-Mobile's parent company, is Germany's largest mobile provider with 37 million customers in Germany. Second-place Vodafone has 34.9 million and O2 has 16.3 million.
Earlier reports had suggested that the iPhone would become multi-carrier as early as October.
For its part, Deutsche Telekom is preparing for the loss of iPhone exclusivity by offering discounts (Google Translation) on its plans. The T-Mobile iPhone 4 promotion launched last week with a 10 percent discount on monthly fees for the first year of the two-year contract.
Apple and carriers have faced opposition to the use of exclusive contracts in Europe. In 2007, a German court ordered Deutsche Telekom to sell the iPhone unlocked and without a contract after Vodafone filed a complaint.
"We want the iPhone to be available to everyone without being tied to a contract," said Vodafone Deutschland chief executive Friedrich Joussen.
In 2008, a French court ruled that an exclusive deal between Apple and France Telecom's Orange was in violation of local freedom of competition and pricing laws. After the ruling, the iPhone's market share in France jumped to the 40 percent range.
Comments
I'll see your 40 percent rage and raise it to 50 percent when the iPhone goes multicarrier in the U.S.
Aren't all phones in germany unlocked as it is...i thought it was a law
Unfortunately not, the only mandatory thing in Germany is that carriers have to unlock devices on request once the subsidized period is over, that is after 24 months in most cases. This is not bad, at least you can then resell an officially unlocked device and get a better price for it (I literally got all iPhones after the first one for free, even after paying early termination fees for swapping the unit after 12 months). Of course, a device unlocked from day one would be better.
There are some European countries with better (more consumer-friendly) laws like France (where an official unlock must be offered from day one, but they can charge a fee), or Belgium, where devices must be unlocked. Germany is not really ahead of the rest here.
Anyhow, there is a rumor that O2 will offer the device without any locks once they enter the game. Vodafone as a competitor will not do much, as their prices and tariffs are almost 100% identical to those of T-Mobile and the networks are basically identical in quality and coverage (data is a tiny bit faster on Vodafone, but they have no extensive network of hotspots while T-Mobile gives you free access to the biggest selection of hotspots in Germany and their iPhone includes a free Navigon turn-by-turn application for Germany, Austria and Switzerland). So, there is no major reason for swapping to Vodafone as far as I can see. I hate T-Mobile's customer support, but then, I barely need it.
The best part of this development is that there are rumors that T-Mobile will improve the existing iPhone plans to be better positioned, rumors point to free weekends and some included free minutes to other mobile networks (most current flats here do only cover calls to landline phones and other T-Mobile cellphones). So, there should be some upside for all users.
"Cuando compres tu iPhone en Apple Online Store, lo recibirás desbloqueado. AsÃ* podrás registrarte para recibir servicio con el operador que elijas y cambiarlo en cualquier momento."
When you buy your iPhone in the Apple Online Store, you will receive it unblocked. You can register it to receive service with the operator you choose and change it anytime.
16 GB 599 Â?, 32 GB 699 Â?, tax included, free delivery.
Apple and carriers have faced opposition to the use of exclusive contracts in Europe. In 2007, a German court ordered Deutsche Telekom to sell the iPhone unlocked and without a contract after Vodafone filed a complaint.
there should be more opposition to the at&t monopoly here in the united states. they have us by the short ones. was in london recently. stopped in to both t-mobile and 3. if you spend at least £60 (~ $95) a month on a two year contract the iphone 4 is free. if you're spending less than that then the phone is £29. their monthly plans are very reasonable. and they have [gasp!] data-only plans.
that's the way it should be. how about a little competition, steve?
when roaming internationally, at&t charges $19.98/MB for data. i popped a t-mobile sim into my legally unblocked 3GS. had 5+ days of unlimited 3G data for £2.50 (exactly $4.08). used over 200MB of data. which is the better deal: $4.08 or over-pay at&t $4,000 for data roaming?
Unfortunately not, the only mandatory thing in Germany is that carriers have to unlock devices on request once the subsidized period is over, that is after 24 months in most cases. This is not bad, at least you can then resell an officially unlocked device and get a better price for it (I literally got all iPhones after the first one for free, even after paying early termination fees for swapping the unit after 12 months). Of course, a device unlocked from day one would be better.
There are some European countries with better (more consumer-friendly) laws like France (where an official unlock must be offered from day one, but they can charge a fee), or Belgium, where devices must be unlocked. Germany is not really ahead of the rest here.
There is NO such law in Germany. Remember when T-Mobile Germany won that lawsuit --- T-Mobile announced that they would VOLUNTARILY unlocked the iphone at the end of contract.
French regulators are IDIOTIC --- French consumers are screwed because they have only 3 national carriers in France. They didn't sell a 4th national wireless license until Dec 2009 (and the 4th carrier isn't operational yet). It doesn't matter whether you can buy the iphone unlocked from all the carriers --- when they all screwed you with monthly plans (which all 3 national carriers were fined for price fixing about 5 years ago).
Belgium NO LONGER has that anti-bundling law --- it was struck down by the European Court of Justice. That anti-bundling law is IDIOTIC anyway because it affected the whole economy. The two cases that finally struck down this idiotic law was (1) a petro company sued the government because it was not allowed to give a free 3 week towing insurance to drivers who filled up their cars with gasoline and (2) a fashion magazine company sued the government because it was not allowed to include coupons for discount for lingeries. Cell phone geeks (who live with their parents and don't pay for housing, food and utilities) cried about how sad it was that the law was struck down in Belgium. For the rest of us who live in the real world --- killing this idiotic law makes a million things cheaper in Belgium.
there should be more opposition to the at&t monopoly here in the united states. they have us by the short ones. was in london recently. stopped in to both t-mobile and 3. if you spend at least £60 (~ $95) a month on a two year contract the iphone 4 is free. if you're spending less than that then the phone is £29. their monthly plans are very reasonable. and they have [gasp!] data-only plans.
that's the way it should be. how about a little competition, steve?
It has NOTHING to do with exclusivity.
The BEST iphone deal in the whole world is Hong Kong --- which has a iphone exclusive carrier and laws that allow simlocking. So why is Hong Kong the iphone paradise that sell completely unlocked iphones for the cheapest rate in the world --- because this tiny little city has 6 carriers. The cheapest G7 iphone countries are UK (until recently 5 national carriers) and US (4 national carriers).
The WORST iphone deal in the whole world is Norway (2 national carriers), France (3 national carriers) and the original Canadian iphone plan (until very recently 3 national carriers).
There is NO such law in Germany. Remember when T-Mobile Germany won that lawsuit --- T-Mobile announced that they would VOLUNTARILY unlocked the iphone at the end of contract.
I did not say "law", there is absolutely no law in Germany that deals with phone locking at all - they always assumed that "the market" will magically come up with the best possible solution. There is only a law that restricts commercial resale of branded devices with altered / manipulated software. And until the arrival of the iPhone there has never been a discussion about that issue over here, as only subsidized pre-paid phones had sim or netlocks. And as all networks are technically compatible, there weren't any "exclusive" deals (other than phones sold under a carrier name) either. Unfortunately, since the arrival of the first iPhone there has been lockingmania... and that for really no reason, as there is no legal mean to get out of a contract ahead of time - so, the carrier will always get the 24 monthly fees and this should settle the subsidy. But while there is no law that enforces the removal of locks, there have been court decisions that clarified that buyers are entitled to use their device as they dare appropriate once the contract expires, as the device is the buyers property then. So, even without a specific law, carriers do have to unlock at the end of the contract. Most, if not all, of these lawsuits took place after the T-Mobile vs. Vodafone lawsuit in 2007.
Germany did auction 7 or 8 UMTS licenses and we still only have 3 true 3G carriers (the rest merged, disappeared, threw in the towel or handpicked a few cities to serve) and the tariffs in Germany are about the same as in France. There is simply a limit to how many networks with almost 100% coverage can operate economically based on area and population. So, France has not done worse at all, the French carriers have just acted reasonably and burnt less money in getting there. If you compare roughly: similar area, similar amount of people, similar tariffs. And at least the French can have their phone unlocked immediately, take it anywhere in the world and use local providers to save thousands of bucks. German consumers do not have that option (other than importing a phone from elsewhere).
I did not say "law", there is absolutely no law in Germany that deals with phone locking at all - they always assumed that "the market" will magically come up with the best possible solution. There is only a law that restricts commercial resale of branded devices with altered / manipulated software. And until the arrival of the iPhone there has never been a discussion about that issue over here, as only subsidized pre-paid phones had sim or netlocks. And as all networks are technically compatible, there weren't any "exclusive" deals (other than phones sold under a carrier name) either. Unfortunately, since the arrival of the first iPhone there has been lockingmania... and that for really no reason, as there is no legal mean to get out of a contract ahead of time - so, the carrier will always get the 24 monthly fees and this should settle the subsidy. But while there is no law that enforces the removal of locks, there have been court decisions that clarified that buyers are entitled to use their device as they dare appropriate once the contract expires, as the device is the buyers property then. So, even without a specific law, carriers do have to unlock at the end of the contract. Most, if not all, of these lawsuits took place after the T-Mobile vs. Vodafone lawsuit in 2007.
Germany did auction 7 or 8 UMTS licenses and we still only have 3 true 3G carriers (the rest merged, disappeared, threw in the towel or handpicked a few cities to serve) and the tariffs in Germany are about the same as in France. There is simply a limit to how many networks with almost 100% coverage can operate economically based on area and population. So, France has not done worse at all, the French carriers have just acted reasonably and burnt less money in getting there. If you compare roughly: similar area, similar amount of people, similar tariffs. And at least the French can have their phone unlocked immediately, take it anywhere in the world and use local providers to save thousands of bucks. German consumers do not have that option (other than importing a phone from elsewhere).
You said MANDATORY --- which meant that you said law/regulation. But there is no such law/regulation in Germany. Show me a single court decision that said mandatory unlocking code should be provided after the contract is over. Buyers can do whatever they want with their phones after the contract --- doesn't mean that the carriers have to give the unlocking codes to them.
French consumers got screwed because the French government (1) gave away their 3G license for peanuts (something like a couple of hundred million euro) and (2) these 3 national carriers were nailed for price fixing.
At the very least, the German government was able to collect the biggest 3G auction prices (20-30 billion euros) in the whole Europe and I haven't seen price fixing claims against German carriers.
Imagine that French carriers paid 1/10 the price for their spectrum, got minimal competition to the point of price fixing, and have approximately the same cell phone price plans as German carriers --- that's screwing the French consumers big time.
It has NOTHING to do with exclusivity.
The BEST iphone deal in the whole world is Hong Kong --- which has a iphone exclusive carrier and laws that allow simlocking. So why is Hong Kong the iphone paradise that sell completely unlocked iphones for the cheapest rate in the world --- because this tiny little city has 6 carriers. The cheapest G7 iphone countries are UK (until recently 5 national carriers) and US (4 national carriers).
The WORST iphone deal in the whole world is Norway (2 national carriers), France (3 national carriers) and the original Canadian iphone plan (until very recently 3 national carriers).
which exclusive carrier would that be? 3, or vodafone? because you can get the iphone from either. hong kong does not have an exclusive carrier, and you can buy an unlocked phone. how much are the phones in hong kong? less than free? i don't know what (or if) the commitment is, but i FAIL to see your point.
which exclusive carrier would that be? 3, or vodafone? because you can get the iphone from either. hong kong does not have an exclusive carrier, and you can buy an unlocked phone. how much are the phones in hong kong? less than free? i don't know what (or if) the commitment is, but i FAIL to see your point.
Hutchison 3 Hong Kong --- for a long long time --- was an iphone exclusive carrier. And for a long long time, Hong Kong has been the best place on earth to buy an iphone, completely unlocked and without contract.
SmarTone-Vodafone only became the second iphone carrier in Hong Kong this year.
What point do you fail to see? Do you need simlocking laws? No, Hong Kong carriers can simlock their phones, but Hutchison chose to sell completely unlocked iphones (the cheapest price in the world) for business reasons. What are the business reasons? Intense competition in a city of 8 million people with 6 real carriers (not MVNO).