Orange and iPhone 3G: speed limits in France, launching queues in Poland and high prices in Romania

Following a petition signed by thousands of French users, complaining that iPhone 3G has a limited speed, Orange officials admitted to have limited the speed for the stability of the network, BetaNews informs. This is not the first incident faced by Orange: in Poland the operator hired actors to fake queues at the iPhone 3G launch event. Orange is also an exclusive operator in Romania where consumers complain about high prices.

According to France Info, the online internet portal of Radio France, Orange officials limited the speed of iPhone 3G to 200-300 Kbps even though the 3G+ technology can offer users a four times speed ability.

A survey conducted by Wired.com concluded that speed limits are caused by operators and not by the phones per se. According to the same survey, users in Germany and Netherlands declared that their internet speed exceeds 2,000 kpbs.

In Romania, Orange launched the new iPhone in six cities across the country on August 22, at a minimum price of 179 euro for the 8GB version together with a plan of 59 euro/month for a 2 years contract. Tariffs are too high since users in Germany or Netherlands pay 1 euro for the same phone with a 2 year plan which costs 29 euro/month Romanian daily Adevarul informs.