Orange France denies iPhone deal is done September launch is "impossible"

23 August 2007 16:59 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Further to the earlier news that made headlines suggesting Apple had now signed agreements with Orange in France, T-Mobile in Germany and O2 in the UK for the iPhone deal, one of the rumoured companies has publicly denied it.

Forbes is reporting that France Telecom mobile phone unit Orange has not won the rights to market the Apple iPhone in France.

Apparently there are "various" mobile operators still in talks with the US company and a decision may take a number of weeks, Orange executive director Louis-Pierre Wenes said in an interview with Paris Match magazine.

The German FT, quoting sources close to the deal, had reported that: "The contract, which was signed by three European mobile operators in recent days, requires that the operators hand over to Apple 10 per cent of the revenues made from calls and data transfers by customers over iPhones."

"The contract was signed by T-Mobile of Germany, Orange of France and O2 in the UK."

Perhaps suggesting that the multiple negotiations are not going as smoothly as Apple might have hoped, Wenes stated:

"A launch date of September, as some reports have said, seems to me impossible."

Before the FT report, we covered unsubstantiated news that Vodafone and Apple were in talks about the iPhone and had got down to the details stage.

If one of the major players in the this latest rumour has denied that it's true, that would suggest that the entire Orange, T-Mobile, O2 trio of operators for Europe could be incorrect and - well - anything's possible.