Shared by Bert
Looks like I might be switching to Mobistar one of these days ...
I just read the press release from Orange, Mobistar, a subsidiary of Orange is going to carry the iPhone in Belgium. The actual press release still leaves in doubt if the agreement is an exclusive one. For some reason the newspaper The Standaard believes that the agreement is exclusive (http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF16052008_015&kanaalid=16). Interestingly there is a link to an interview with Frédéric Verbiest from Belgacom (http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF16052008_041&kanaalid=16) who states that Belgacom (parent company of Proximus) is not currently in talks with Apple. What is this? Belgacom arrogance? Belgacom stupidity? Vodahone, Belgacoms international partner is carrying the iPhone.
So, what am I going to do do in the next few months? Wait until the iPhone effectively appears with Mobistar, dump my Proximus contract and get a Mobistar contract. So Proximus is going to loose out on roughly 4000 EURO/year in mobile phone invoices I am paying. I don't think I will be the only one.
5 comments:
Het is geen kwestie van arrogantie bij Belgacom. Apple richt zijn aandacht blijkbaar liever eerst op de grote landen en sluit daar deals met grote spelers als bijvoorbeeld Vodafone. België en rechtstreekse onderhandelingen met Belgische operatoren zijn op dit moment blijkbaar geen prioriteit voor hen. Wij zijn zeker bereid tot onderhandelingen met Apple over de verdeling van de iPhone.
Het is ook nog niet duidelijk hoe Mobistar de telefoon gaat verdelen en wat die "exclusiviteit" precies inhoudt. Koppelverkoop is verboden in België. Het toestel zou dus niet geblokkeerd kunnen worden voor gebruik op één enkel mobiel netwerk.
Frédérique Verbiest
Woordvoerster Belgacom
It will be interesting to see what the tariff options will be from the 3 operators for their data plans and whether any will offer the visual voice mail feature (and if Belgacom doesn't support this, is it really such a big deal?)
It will also be interesting to see how much the iPhone is going to be sold for -- presumably the same as in France, else we'll still all be going across the border to buy them.
I'm sure that Proximus would have liked the sales revenues from the phones, and as a good Belgian, of course I would prefer to give my money to them rather than to Mobistar.
And then, if we believe in conspiracy theories, maybe the phone call I got from Proximus offering me 3 months free subscription if I renewed, just before the Mobistar announcement, wasn't so innocent?
But so far I can't see any compelling reason to leave Proximus and go to Mobistar.
John Pritt
Dear bert,
as a mac fan I share your enthousiasm about the iPhone, in fact I already own one.
Unfortunately your statement says more about your frustration towards Proximus than it discussed the fact of apple's strategy to package the service with hardware, and selling not the package but the exclusivity of it!
As mister Verbiest said; "Koppelverkoop" is forbidden; The only thing that can happen is that Mobistar has some Time To market advantages.
Ow and if you are happy again with Proximus after they do you a good proposal; I will be glad to inform you how to use your future iPhone on their network ;-))
kr
Jonas
Jonas,
I'm a Mac fan too, and I own an iPhone (since november on the Proximus network, so no problems there). Frustration with Proximus? I guess so, as with any large Telco getting a decent service is a pain. And what really bothers me is the ridiculous roaming costs for mobile internet.
Finally, Mobistar proabably makes a good move in getting the iPhone, but I'm planning to buy a (cheap) one in the US anyway and crack it. As soon as the 3G version is available ...
Hello...
I think many people will just leave proximus to get the iphone....that's a very nice move from orange....
It was logical for mobistar to benefit from it's parent company.
Cheers
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