German court delays ruling on T-Mobile iPhone injunction
By Will Park on Monday, December 3rd, 2007 at 12:59 PM PST In Announcements, Apple, Partnerships, T-Mobile, Vodafone, iPhone
We know, we know. You’re all sitting on the edge of your seat to hear the Hamburg court’s decision on the T-Mobile iPhone injunction. The court is reviewing the decision to force T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) to sell unlocked iPhones alongside the locked iPhones offered exclusively through the German wireless operator. And, it seems anxious German iPhone-hopefuls will be biting their nails for another day – the ruling has been delayed until tomorrow, December 4, 2007.
Let’s refresh the issue a bit. Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), presumably upset over losing the Apple iPhone exclusivity contract to T-Mobile Germany, prompted a German court to issue a temporary court-order that forced T-Mobile to sell unlocked versions of the iPhone. The question at hand is whether or not the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)/T-Mobile exclusivity deal to distribute iPhones in Germany is legal – Vodafone argued that the deal breached local regulations.
So, T-Mobile complied with the court-order and has been offering unlocked iPhones at ridiculous prices (999 Euro – a price point meant to discourage unlocked iPhone customers). T-Mobile has been waiting on the Hamburg-district court to review the Apple/T-Mobile deal to (hopefully) find that the partnership is legit and will be allowed to resume exclusive sales of locked iPhones.
Keep in mind, France’s Orange is offering unlocked iPhones (Orange and Apple had some run-ins with local telecom regulations) at a 749 Euro price point. Any Germans interested in an unlocked iPhone only need to take a quick train-ride (well, quick-ish) to the land of crepes and creme sauces to save a couple hundred Euros. We’d like to know just how many unlocked iPhones T-Mobile is selling.
[Via: iPhone Central]
That train ride to France could take you at least a week before you’ll have a fully functional unlocked iPhone for 749 Euros.
This is the catch:
If you buy an unlocked iPhone in France you pay 649 Euro’s plus a prepaid/unlock voucher for 100 Euro’s. To activate the iPhone the store will send the iPhone’s IMEI number to Apple in order to let them know this iPhone is being sold as a Simlock free model.
Then Apple will send the buyer an activation code, a proces that can take up to seven days but, more importantly, Apple can only send those vouchers to a French address! If you don’t live in France you’re out of luck.
There are, however, some Orange stores who offer to fill in their address so Apple can send the unlock code to them. Of course you will have to return to the store after seven days or make arrangements that the store will mail the code to your home address in germany, Belgium, Luxemburg, The Netherlands etc. . .
Anywho, buying an unlocked iPhone in France as a non-French citizen takes more than just a ‘quick(ish) trainride’
))