France’s Orange signs new iPhone deal with Apple

French wireless operator Orange said Friday it has signed an agreement with Apple Inc. to sell its iPhone in the Middle East, Africa and several European countries. Orange France Telecom said in a statement that the sentence will sell the equipment in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and African markets later this year. France Telecom spokesman said Bertrand Deronchaine Orange will be the exclusive supplier iPhone in Belgium and Romania, with co-exclusive or non-exclusive deals in other countries.

He refused to give more details about the agreement. Apple has surprised so far exclusively for iPhone with AT & T Inc. in the United States, Great Britain O2, T-Mobile in Germany and Orange in France. Apple plans further expansion later this year through collaboration with the Mexico City-based Mobile americas SAT. The top mobile operator in Latin americas said earlier this month that plans to bring the iPhone to all its operations americas America. Apple has also signed agreements with Rogers Communications Inc. to sell the device in Canada; Milan-based Telecom Italia SpA to sell the iPhone in Italy, and Vodafone Group PLC, the world’s largest mobile phone sales company, to sell in 10 countries, including Australia, India, Italy and Turkey. Since the combination cell phone-iPod-Internet device went on sale last June in the U.S., Apple has sold 5.4 million worldwide, based on data at the end of Apple fiscal second quarter, which ended in March. The ads that will help Cupertino, California-based Apple to meet its target of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of this year. Many consumers in countries where Apple has not impressed iPhone refers to mobile operators are already using. It is using “unblocked” iPhones that have been modified to work on any cellular network, a sign of the growing global demand for phones that also has irked Apple, which has released some disabled phones through software updates.

// May 16th, 2008