Orange looks to cash in on mobile internet with iPhone

The mobile internet has certainly been given a boost this year with the increasing popularity of Apple’s iPhone and the Android, now, French telecoms provider Orange is looking to further cash in on what has proved to be a natural progression for telcos – the mobile internet.

From next Tuesday (November 10), Orange will begin selling the iPhone, a long two years since its launch in the UK when the telco missed out on the lucrative contract when it went exclusively to O2.

The introduction of Apple’s handset is set to boost revenues at the UK third largest telco, which already boasts 4.7 million mobile internet subscribers.

Research from Juniper has revealed that the mobile internet ad spending could be well quadrupling from the current day £250 million to well over £1 billion by 2014.

An increase in mobile internet ad spend won’t not directly impact the revenues of the mobile network operators, but it is an indication of how lucrative the medium is going to be in the near future.

Last week, Orange reported a significant rise in its mobile internet customer base in its otherwise disappointing 2009 financial results.

It increased the number of mobile internet customers by almost two-thirds (64%) in the first nine months of 2009, compared to the same period last year – proving it can handle the ever increasing and demanding iPhone audience.

The network offers a range of mobile internet packages offering speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps which start from £4.89 a month.

In the build to its iPhone November 10 debut, Orange has launched a £4m outdoor and press advertising campaign to promote its 3G network, which it claims covers more than 93% of the population.

Orange has a strategy of looking to woo customers with its claim to have the best network based on third generation mobile technology, which enables reasonable web surfing on handsets.