Orange gets beat down by France's Competition Council

Beautiful teeth hers, uh!

I just don't see them building out a GSM network simply to be able to sell the iPhone. ;)

As the Competition council said, the customer was forced to stand on Orange's network.
But this decision was delivered due to a deep lack of competition within the french market : only three providers, that have already been sentenced to huge penalties for cartel.
The iPhone could have been unlocked, but it is considered to be expensive, and you had to get an Orange prepaid sim card to start to Apple device, even though you wanted to use it on SFR or Bouygues.

Furthermore, the decision highlights that exclusive deals with providers is not good for competition. (iPhone and Orange, Blackberry Storm and SFR)

I don't know French law, but how can the government decide with whom a company chooses to do business? Is a corporation there NOT allowed to form strategic partnerships with a single partner company? And how is that supposed to encourage competition or protect the consumer?

Perhaps Apple doesn't want to agree to other French carriers' demands, or Apple doesn't like the quality of their networks. Perhaps Apple doesn't feel that all carriers can adequately support the product image or its feature set. Last time I looked, Apple was not a department of the French government. Should they not be able to determine the best way to sell their own products?

Consumers can choose from multiple smartphones from different carriers. Orange just happens to be the carrier that is carrying the iPhone in France. BTW, the claim that the Apple/Orange deal is a "serious and immediate damage to competition on the mobile market and to consumers" is a really nasty insult to Nokia, RIM, Sony Ericcson, LG, Motorola, Samsung and every other cellphone maker.