The iPhone and competition in France

Thus far the iPhone has only been available in France on the Orange network at a price of 99 and 199 euros, with rental costing about 50 euros a month upwards.

However one of the good things about France is that it is far more interventionist than Britain, and as of tomorrow the iPhone will be avilable on the SFR network, at a price of 99 and 199 euros, with rental costing about 50 euros a month upwards.

Linked sales are also illegal in France, which means that in a French computermonger if you buy a pc and don't want Vista on it ( imagine the thought ! ) you can just say "Take off that ... software please." and they have to deduct the price of it, too. 

Meanwhile, Bouygues Telecom ( boo-eeg, not boogie-woogie ) have yet to announce their prices, but I reckon I could give a good guess.

Because one of the bad things about France is that there is a lot less competition than in Britain, so lots of things are more expensive and there's fewer killer deals around. For example, I get emails from companies advertising 5% off things as if that was impressive ! Also eBay.fr now has a banner advertising searches in Britain because the pound is weak and there's no duty to pay on imports from Britain.

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