Orange, France Telecom subsidiary, launched its Gallery mobile Internet kiosk at start-July 2003. The service gives access to WAP data services, including football match results from Canal Plus. SFR and Bouygues are expected to follow soon with similar services. Gallery is not a direct rival to the Orange.fr i-mode-type portal because users acess different services by inputing their name, just as with the Minitel, rather than by having services organised by theme in an arbitrary order. This puts all service providers on an even footing, which should benefit the smaller ones. The same access code will be used for all service providers. There is no subscription and users pay only for the services they use. The cost is either reported on the customer's bill or deducted from prepaid cards. Prices start at EUR 0.25-EUR 2 for logo, ringtone, music or picture downloads. Gallery has 40 service providers so far. It is accessible by GPRS and WAP 1.2.1 phones, used by 850k Orange customers at present and an expected 3 mil at end-2003. Orange expect a EUR 10 mil turnover in the service's first year.
