France Telecom in talks with Apple

According to CNET, France Telecom confirmed today that they are in the midst of negotiations with Apple to be the carrier of the iPhone in France, though they haven't finalized the deal yet. "I can confirm there are talks," a France Telecom representative said.

Earlier this week, the Financial Times reported that Deutsche Telekom's mobile-phone unit, T-Mobile, had agreed to a deal in which, in order to sell the iPhone, it would share with Apple 10 percent of the revenue it makes from calls and data transfers by customers over iPhones. The newspaper added that France Telecom's Orange unit and the O2 unit of Spain's Telefonica had also agreed to the terms for deals in their countries.

Louis-Pierre Wenes, a senior executive at France Telecom, did reveal that an announcement might be several weeks away.

"Several operators are still in talks with Apple. I think it will be several weeks before we have an announcement. A deal in September, as has been reported, seems impossible to me, if only for technical reasons," Wenes told Paris Match."

[via CNET]