The US Department of Justice (DoJ) is to investigate whether
exclusive distribution deals between mobile handset makers and
network operators reduce competition and lead to higher prices for
consumers.
The news came as Telefonica, the Spanish network operator,
signed an
exclusive deal to distribute the Palm Pre "iPhone killer" in
Germany, Spain, the UK and Ireland.
Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading, the two main regulators of
the UK mobile sector, say no one in the UK has complained about
exclusive deals.
Mobile exclusives
Many network operators gain an edge by qualifying a new handset
on their network first.
Apple's multiyear deal with O2 in the UK is believed to be the
only multiyear exclusive deal between a handset maker and a network
operator.
The DoJ investigation is informal, and relates to Apple's
exclusive deal with AT&T, according to a report in the
Financial Times. The DoJ appeared concerned that consolidation
among network operators may reduce routes to market for handset
makers. The US has four, compared with the UK's five, but
Vodafone may buy T-Mobile UK.
Happy with O2/iPhone deal
Retailer and virtual mobile network operator Carphone Warehouse
said it was happy with Apple's UK distribution arrangements. It
buys iPhones from O2 and resells them with O2 contracts. "We have
very good relations with O2," said Carphone Warehouse spokesman
Shane Conway. "We would never buy iPhones on the grey market to
resell them with other airtime contracts."
Conway said that even though the UK handset market is in
decline, Carphone Warehouse had increased the number of connections
it set up in the past year. "Most of that was due to an increase in
smartphone sales, and most of that was due to the iPhone," he
said.
| An important deal for AT&T |
|---|
|
A
leaked memo published on the TechCrunch blog showed just how
important the iPhone deal has been to
AT&T. The
memo said: "iLaunch day 2009, the day the iPhone GS was launched, was one
for the record books, as AT&T customers scrambled to get their
hands on the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet. Here's a look at some of the milestones we achieved: - Best-ever sales day in our retail stores
- Second-largest traffic day in our retail stores
- Most transactions processed via our IT systems in a single
day
- Most upgrade eligibility checks in a single day
- Largest order day in att.com history
- Largest features sales day in att.com history
On this year's launch day, iPhone sales exceeded sales recorded
on 2008's iPhone launch day, Black Friday 2008 and Dec. 26, 2008 -
all heavy-volume sales days. In fact, this year we surpassed 2008's
launch day sales at about noon Central time, and sustained our
previous peak hour record, also set in 2008, for 11 straight
hours." |