France Telecom: Discussions with Apple over iPhone Ongoing

PARIS -(Dow Jones)- France Telecom Friday confirmed it was in continuing negotiations with Apple over the right to market the U.S. company's iPhone.

"There are discussions underway," a France Telecom spokesman said.

Thursday, the head of France Telecom's Orange France division, Louis-Pierre Wenes, told French magazine Paris Match that numerous operators are still talking with Apple about the iPhone and that an announcement was unlikely for "several weeks."

"Putting it on the market by September, as certain people are reporting, seems impossible to me, if only for technical reasons," Wenes said.

The comments from Wenes came after the Financial Times reported Wednesday that Deutsche Telekom's mobile unit, T-Mobile, Orange, and Telefonica's O2 U.K had all signed deals with Apple to sell the iPhone and share some of their revenues with the U.S. computer company.

-By Jethro Mullen, Dow Jones Newswires; 33 1 4017 1738; jethro.mullen@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Posted to the site on 24th August 2007