Official Apple-Orange announcement due this week?

Apple and Orange could finally make their partnership on the distribution of the iPhone in France publicly official this week, sources and report citing France Telecom's CEO indicate.

For the second time since rumours on a deal between the two companies started spreading on the Internet, Didier Lombard, confirmed to the French newspaper, Le Républicain Lorrain, that France Telecom's subsidiary has won the deal.

The first confirmation was made to Bloomberg by France Telecom's CEO on September 20 but the absence of the iPhone during the Paris-based Apple Expo show and the two companies' PR department silence on the subject raised doupts on the materialization of the deal before the end of the year, with some reports even claiming that Apple and Orange had cancelled the deal.

Lombard's second confirmation now indicates that we should expect the iPhone to arrive in France with Orange by the end of November and some insiders suggest it will happen as soon as this week.

On mid-August, MacScoop was the first to mention the possibility that Apple and Orange sign a deal for the distribution of the iPhone in France on November.

The MacScoop report, which was corroborated by several French and International publications, also claimed that Fnac stores will also sell the device. This last information was confirmed to MacScoop by retail sources on late August.

Meanwhile, Mobistar, another France Telecom subsidiary, is in talks with Apple over the distribution of the iPhone in Belgium, according to another report published on Libre Belgique.