T-Mobile could lose iPhone exclusive rights - Germany

T-Mobile could soon lose its exclusive rights to Apple's widely popular iPhone in Germany, Manager Magazin reported on Friday.

Citing wireless industry sources, the magazine said deal between Deutsche Telekom's mobile unit and Apple will run out at the end of 2009. That could mean opening the door to other wireless operators and lower prices for consumers.

Manager Magazin said mobile operator O2 was currently renegotiating its exclusive deal to sell the iPhone in Britain and was keen to expand to the German market.

"O2 has reason to be confident this time when the iPhone becomes available in November," an official from Telefónica subsidiary told the magazine.

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The Apple/T-Mobile partnership will continue. O2 will be out of luck and the iPhone 3Gs is already available, so you don't have to wait till November.

i dun really like T-Mobile blocking VOIP traffic from iphone. O2 doesn't block VOIP traffic.

Direct from the small print of O2 Germany's Data Tarrif plan.

Translation: No VideoTelephone, No VOIP and no Peer-to-Peer traffic..

And from the O2 UK iPhone Data Plan (All other data plans as well)

- Link

I haven't seen a (Non-Asian) carrier yet that lets its users use VOIP, P2P or any other data heavy service on its data network.

Confirmation of VOIP on O2... Heres hoping they manage to get the iPhone in Novemeber..!!
http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/08/18/o2-germany-opens-mobile-network-for-voip-and-skype/

The guy in the O2 store said if they didn't have the iphone by Dec.. they would for sure in January, "assuming Apple sorted out its exploding battery problems".. Haven't heard to much about that myself.

But promising I can get on a non-T-Mobile plan. Bit painful to wait though i must say.

...not true that O2 will have exclusive - if any - rights to sell the iPhone in the UK. Vodafone has already secured rights to sell the phone in the UK. Check their website.

But the original post was from June, when O2 did still have exclusive rights in the UK. Vodafone and Orange have also now negotiated deals with Apple, and all 3 will sell the iPhone in the UK.

Apple could afford to do this when their phone was miles and miles ahead of the competition. Today, Android has closed the gap and is offering something that is arguably better than the iPhone. It's not as easy for Apple to rip off customers when they have an alternative.

Has been a great strategy. Made them more money and gave the iPhone some exclusivity. Now the market matures they open it up to everyone. Well played hand by Apple basically.

I don't like their strategy personally - but has been great for them as a company.

Very true. It has certainly worked for them.

I just called the T-Mobile call center. The person that I talked to told me that T-Mobile is not blocking Skype or any other VoIP/IM application, but they do not provide any 'additional service on usage of them' either (I don't know what she exactly meant by that but I assume they do not do/provide any data traffic regulation to increase the VoIP QoS). She added that I could download Skype or any other app from the appstore and use it right away over the T-Mobile network.

As I understand it, Skype will never work over the cell network, only over WiFi. This was no doubt a condition from Apple before they would allow it on the App Store, to protect the cartel they have with the service providers.

Actually its the carriers that told Apple, No Way.. If the Carriers say, sure.. Go Ahead, then Apple will let it on the iStore.
Almost All restrictions placed on the iPhone are there due to the Carriers request. Same as every other phone on the market.

Darknight is right. There was rumor, when the Skype app first came out, that it would be enabled on the AT&T (only US carrier) 3G network, but AT&T ferociously blocked it, until a month later, Skype re-coded the program to work off of WiFi only. Skype is registered in Luxembourg, but it is owned by EBay (american), and more importantly, Apple is an American company, so they become the gateway through which all apps are conformed to (mainly AT&T's) bidding. Technically, they could implement some type of carrier verification (for those that use a Skype-friendly network... if there are any), and post a second version of the software in the app store. Unfortunately, because Skype is a free app, this will probably never happen for the most time-tested of reasons... there's no money in it (or at least... not enough).