Deutsche Telekom AG, which won the exclusive rights to distribute Apple Inc.'s iPhone in Germany, will sell two-year contracts starting at 1,575 euros ($2,270) including the price of the handset.
Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile unit will offer three packages, for 49 euros, 69 euros and 89 euros a month, the Bonn-based company said in an e-mailed statement today. In the U.K., Telefonica SA's O2 unit will sell 18-month contracts starting at 35 pounds (50 euros) a month.
Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs is tapping Germany, Europe's biggest wireless market, to help meet a forecast of selling 10 million iPhones worldwide in 2008. T-Mobile, the largest mobile-phone company in Germany, had 34 million customers at the end of June. It's counting on the partnership with Cupertino, California-based Apple to bolster customer spending in its home market.
T-Mobile said on Sept. 19 it will begin selling the 8- gigabyte combination phone and iPod digital music player in Germany on Nov. 9 for 399 euros including tax. Customers must take out contracts for at least 24 months, T-Mobile spokesman Alexander von Schmettow said in a phone interview today.
Customers can use the iPhone to surf the Web using T- Mobile's network of 8,000 WiFi access points, T-Mobile said. Data download speeds will reach as much as 11 megabits a second.
T-Mobile's lowest-priced contract includes 100 minutes of calling time 40 text messages. That compares with 200 minutes of calls and 200 messages under O2's cheapest package.
T-Mobile offers Web access to iPhone customers using the so-called Edge technology, which allows download speeds of as much as 220 kilobits a second. T-Mobile will limit that speed to 200 megabits of data for subscribers of the 49-euro package. The speed for additional downloads will drop to 64 kilobits a second afterwards, spokesman Von Schmettow said. The data limits for the more expensive packages are one gigabit and five gigabits, respectively.
via bloomberg
10-29-2007, 06:43 PM
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