France Telecom keeps iPhone exclusively in France

 France Telecom’s Orange brand will retain the exclusive distribution rights for the iPhone in France, a head honcho at the company said today.

"It will remain an exclusive contract in France,"  Chief Financial Officer Gervais Pellissier told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms summit in Paris this morning.

This confirms that in all three European markets in which Apple chose exclusive partnerships with operators in order to bring iPhone to those countries will retain exclusivity. O2 in the UK and Deutsche Telekom in Germany have all indicated they’ll keep hold of that exclusive deal, even while Apple chooses to offer the next-generation device through multiple operators in other key countries, including Switzerland, Australia, Egypt, India and Italy. (We have a list of currently confirmed iPhone carrier deals right here). The only significant change known of so far is in Austria, where Deutsche Telekom recently lost exclusivity on news that Orange will also sell the device there.