iPhone: Orange Restricts 3G Data Speed to 384 Kb/s in France

Following complains from iPhone owners and users, as well as pressure from consumer groups, Orange admitted to have intentionally reduced the data transfer speed of the 3G network for Smartphone to 384 Kbits/s. This is a theoretical max speed offered by 3G network, however, in France as in most EU countries or in Japan, Orange is using a 3G+ network which should allow transfer speed of 3.6 Mbits/s (up to 7.2 Mbits/s in large cities). This limitation was identified by users who connected to 3G network managed by other French carriers, and which were able to reach transfer speed 3 to 4 times higher than the one allowed by Orange.
To avoid any legal actions, Orange quickly recognized the current limits and already announced that starting September 15th, the new limit will be set at 1 Mbits/s. Orange is arguing that such limitation is necessary to allow its 3G network for not being saturated or overloaded by data transfer request originating from smartphone, and especially iPhone 3G from its launch.