For the first five years after Apple introduced the iPhone, Apple sold it in the United States with the requirement that it be used only on the AT&T cell phone network. Indeed, Apple took a series of steps to prevent customers from “unlocking” the phone so that it could be used on other networks.
The Orange network in France began selling the first iPhone for €399 ($588) with a two-year subscription.
Unlike in the United States, one could get an unlocked iPhone in France from the vendor.
Orange would unlock an iPhone for an additional €100 ($144) if the customer chose an iPhone service plan, €150 if the customer stayed with the carrier and had a non iPhone plan (which didn’t allow one to use the iPhone’s special features), and €250, if the customer didn’t have a plan with Orange (Stan Beer, “Orange iPhone Unlock Starts Demise of Exclusive Carrier Model,” ITWire, November 28, 2007). Give plausible explanations why Apple chose to have an exclusive deal with AT&T, why AT&T wanted Apple to enforce exclusivity, and why Orange was being more flexible. Was Apple or the phone service “extending monopoly power?”