T-Mobile picks up iPhone contract in Germany

Rheinische Post (RP) that Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile won out over rival Vodafone for the right to sell iPhone in Germany. Apparently the rest of Europe is still in play.

This makes me wonder which network international travelers with T-Mobile iPhones will see when they power up their iPhones in the United States.

T-Mobile has had a roaming agreement with Cingular. I don’t know if that’s still the case, because the area in which my T-Mobile phones once switched to Cingular — San Francisco — now registers T-Mobile as the carrier. I can’t imagine AT&T sitting still for any iPhone connecting to anything but its network in the States. But if each region really is subject to a bidding war, perhaps AT&T doesn’t have a say in who gets to sell iPhone overseas.

I do know that Europeans will not sit still for having their phones go dead outside their service area. One portion of the Rheinische Post piece that I did not trouble to translate also decried the fact that Germans won’t get their choice of networks and tariffs (the more accurate term for rate plan). They’re no more fond of exclusives than we are, but at least Vodafone didn’t capture all of Europe in one bid, AT&T-style.

I struggled through translation from German to get this:

Up to the last minute, executives of the British mobile radio group of Vodafone in Newbury were sure that only they, the biggest mobile radio corporation in Europe, could bring Apple’s iPhone, a combination mobile phone, music player, and organizer, to the European market. Once iPhone started selling in the U.S. on Friday, the [Vodafone] executives learned otherwise. Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile has won the bid for Germany-wide distribution of the prestigious Apple mobile phone. To get the lucrative order, T-Mobile had to shovel out some extra money while bidding was in the last second.” Nothing is known about the purchase price. A representative from T-Mobile’s corporate headquarters said only, no comment.” A Vodafone corporate spokesperson also declined comment.

The Apple mobile phone, which sold more than half a million pieces in its first weekend, should appear in German stores on Nov. 1. The price should be about 450 euros. How the distribution should run in the rest of Europe is not clear. Most recent speculation has Apple separating from its American one-partner policy (in the USA only AT&T sells iPhones) to authorize Vodafone, T-Mobile, and Carphone Warehouse [in various regions?].

Given its greater market share in Europe, the British mobile radio giant Vodafone had been the favorite to win pan-European distribution.

 

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