Jul 03
Apple + Mobistar = Fail update
2008 at 08.39 pm posted by Veerle Pieters
You think the iPhone launch in Belgium couldn’t get any worse? Think again. Mobistar just announced that the press event of tomorrow has been cancelled. The reason you ask? Apparently not all commercial details are ready by now so it has to be postponed to a later date. A later date that they can’t say just yet. I think Mobistar is going for the worst Apple iPhone partner ever award! Steve Jobs if you read this I would terminate this deal if I was you as this makes you look seriously stupid. How many times can you screw a good opportunity? In Mobistar’s case a lot :D At Mobistar nobody was available for comments. I wonder why? Man, at Proximus they must be having a ball.
25served
1
Just ask Rogers Wireless here in Canada, they’re really bumbling around with the iPhone launch as well. Between their horrible rate plans and typos on their website saying that the Early Cancellation Fee to get out of your 3-year contract would be $1100, it’s just been a huge PR nightmare.
2
it’s a shame. When checking out mobistar’s site the map showing their hsdpa coverage (which they promote to be superfast) doesn’t look very promising either: they still have lots of ground to cover, so next to “marketingtroubles” I’m guessing they’re just not ready on different levels.
3
OMG, that really sucks!! As long as the 2.0 software works on hacked phones everything else doesn’t matter for me :)
4
Wow… can’t believe it… it could (and will) happen here (argentina) :) but europe?
Well.. good luck :)
5
Hey Veerle - Something I just can’t keep forgetting is this: Selling LOCKED phones in Belgium == ILLEGAL! So why is Mobistar saying they have “iphone exclusivity”? I will definitely be buying the iPhone unlocked, if even possible! If not, I’ll just keep my first iPhone and I’ll wait untill firmware 2.0 has been hacked. Either way, Proximus FTW!
6
On the other hand: it’s just a mobile phone. There are (a lot) more worse things that could happen.
I mean: not worth getting worked up over, methinks. Those few days/months, do they really matter? Will they make your life that much better?
7
It’s pretty much the same thing here in Finland: TeliaSonera is the absolute worst when it comes to pricing and customer service. I love Apple, but not enough to buy anything from TS.
It seems that the people over at Cupertino dind’t quite grasp just how badly the people hate their mobile carriers…
8
;-) just make sure that you include text like ‘Mobistar is going for the worst Apple iPhone partner ever award’ in the link to Mobistar’s webpage… to be honest I think I see the Mobistar brand here quite a bit in Denmark but it is usually at Turish kiosks where they cell it… interesting how an A-brands can be a B-brand in another…
9
I’m puzzled to, they can’t even handle short messages as they’re supposed to.
10
Be happy that you are in so important country that they have even announced launch of it. :) Czech republic is still on waiting list.
I recommend you HTC. Although it runs on WM, they rule in this category for a few last years… and without any marketing sauce.
11
I bet’ya 9 out of 10 they won’t be able to enable the visual voice mail either!
12
Hello!
Im a guy from sweden very interested in the iphone. The prices i sweden are way to high, its crazy. But im going too belgium next week and im in brussels on friday the releasedate. is it the same releasedate in belgium? i have heard rumors that belgian law says that they have to sell phones whitout any kind of locks? Is that true?
Hope you will answer..
txh
Brian
13
Apple seems to have picked quite a few bad partners - in Canada and Sweden there have been much criticism surrounding the release of the iPhone…
14
Its all over Veerle, not just belgium!
The first gen is still cheaper than the second gen, the only positiv thing in Denmark on that area, is its not allowed to bound customers for more than 6 months.
15
Don’t worry
Be Happy :)
It’s just thing ;) really sux thing
16
I can only imagine how frustrated you must be. Personally, I want to wait a while to see if the prices come down a little bit and see what bugs need to be fixed before I buy one. I hope you get yours soon and are happy with it!
Jerry
17
Brian Waser said:
You have to click the link “iPhone launch in Belgium” in the article to read what’s going in Belgium. Short version there will be no iPhone for you here.
Yes that’s true but nobody knows yet how it will play out here. Will they try to do it exclusively and wait and see if somebody takes them to court or will it be available at Apple dealers as well. That’s what I hoped to hear at the now cancelled press event. Now everything is still like a bad episode from a soap.
18
It seems to me that the iPhone in belgium is only used to blame mobile carriers, and in this case Mobistar. We know for a while now that Proximus is ridiculously costly, Mobistar is slightly better and Base is best, yet they have worse signal quality. Quite simply it’s a tradeoff.
Personally, I think anyone must be absolutely insane to actually freely get yourself into Proximus / Belgacom. It’s just the same with mobile as with fixed lines and internet connections.
So my point, Belgium telecommunication is not cheap at all compared to the rest of Europe, but it goes much further along than just a hspda connection for some gadget.
19
Situation last year in Germany: vodafone have had a short win against t-mobile. t-mobile was forced to sell the iphone unlocked. They sell it for 999€ for some days. Then the final adjudgement was released: t-mobile won and the iphone was sold just with a contract with t-mobile.
So the iphone 3G is also just official available locked at t-mobile. Of course: t-mobile have a very good coverage situation in Germany. But it is a shame that apple will take these restrictions and will not open the phone to the total market.
20
Well ... I always said I was going to buy a legal iPhone. Even when people around me showed me their fancy unlocked phone I had something like “nah I’ll wait, it’s not worth the trouble of unlocking the thing and hoping I don’t do anything stupid so it gets locked again, blank stare”.
The longer I wait, the more I get the impression that buying and unlocking an “illegal” iphone is just a lot less trouble than buying a legal one (another blank stare)!
btw ... Can anyone tell me the difference in use between “then” and “than”? thx!
21
Sounds like someone dropped the ball BIG time and things need to be changed ASAP.
22
That sucks for people in Belgium. Wonder why they canceled the even though..
23
Great now they are selling it?
But please explain why is the iPhone more than 100€ cheaper in Italy?
next holiday I’m eating a lot of pastas and buy a Celliphone.
24
Check out the awesome (not) data-plans.
http://www.littlebighuman.com/?p=37
25
@Martijn,
Difference between
then is a reference time
than is a comparision
So,
I wrote a comment in this blog, then I made some tea, which was better than the tea I had this morning.