T-Mobile to ‘open up’ iPhone in Germany
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Nov 21, 2007 at 7:49am
Apple’s iPhone strategy was “dealt a fresh blow today” when T-Mobile, its exclusive partner in Germany, was forced to make the communications available on rival networks, reports the Times Online. T-Mobile said that it will make the phone accessible to other mobile operators.
The move followed a legal challenge by Vodafone which claimed that the exclusive deal—under which customers were forced to sign up to a 24-month T-Mobile contract—breached local competition laws. It’s unclear how Apple’s typical exclusivity model for the iPhone can proceed in Germany now the phone has been opened up for use on other networks.
The model has also been blown apart in France, where local laws have forced Orange (Apple’s network partner there) to open up the phone to rival networks when it goes on sale at the end of the month, notes the Times Online. The UK is now the only European market where the deal remains exclusive to one partner, O2.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 10,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
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