The media frenzy around the European carrier that will bring Apple’s iPhone on the old continent has made another “victim”: this time it’s Orange, France Telecom’s mobile subsidiary.

The online edition of Le Figaro cited insiders from MacScoop.com, who got a tip about a possible negotiation between Apple and France Telecom, for the introduction of the iPhone in France.

MacScoop.com said that “The little information we obtained so far indicates that Orange is not far from a deal with the maker of the most hyped gadget of all times. In fact, some insiders have suggested that a deal may already be signed.

The word among employees inside Orange is that the company has been doing everything it could to close a deal for the iPhone in the French market. Sales teams who are in charge of the consumer market are even said to have already started preparing for the launch since last month, just in case, while the marketing division already has an advertising plan in the works.”

The launch of the iPhone in Europe is scheduled for the end of 2007, but European carriers are concerned over the gadget’s lack of 3G capabilities. Europeans, who have a strong 3G network, are favoring high data-transfer speeds offered by UMTS or HSDPA technologies, in detriment of the “old” EDGE speeds AT&T offers for the iPhone in the US. In a recent interview, Vodafone’s CEO Arun Sarin said of the craved, keyboard-less phone that “[it] is clearly a good, software-driven device, but we're concerned about wideband area coverage. 3G (capability) is something we look forward to and hope Apple moves forward to soon." In Germany, T-mobile is apparently the winner for the Anglo-Saxon territory, the cost of the phone in the respective market having been established at 450 euros (US $612).

France Telecom’s partners for the iPhone launch, according to MacScoop.com, would include FNAC, a nationwide retailer whose stores could compensate for Apple’s scarce presence on the market. Apparently, the November 2007 launch would include about 50,000 headsets.

Orange however declined to comment on the rumors: "Orange has no comment to make on the rumours about the iPhone," a spokeswoman for Orange said in an e-mailed statement to Reuters.