I'm not allowed to go on M6mobile.fr

Published on 14 October 2012

And chances are you aren't either.

Let me explain. Earlier today, I came across the M6 Mobile ad on TV. Nothing wild so far. Still, being generally interested in the mobile phone market, I get hung up on the offers mentioned in the ad.

Something like 10 euros a month for 1 hour of calls. My immediate reaction is that, in late 2012, they're not going to make many people dream with that.

But still, because I'm curious, I decide to go look at the offers in detail, and I tap "m6mobile.fr" into my iPhone to check out their deals.

And suddenly, LOL.

Because I'm not connected to Orange's 3G network, the M6mobile site is blocked on my smartphone. So I immediately ask people on Twitter to confirm:

And the answers pour in:

So it's very simple, and crystal clear: the M6mobile.fr site is quite simply blocked for smartphones that aren't connected on Orange. Let's note that the M6 Mobile plan is obviously an Orange plan. Let me rephrase: the website that promotes and sells M6 Mobile plans is inaccessible to every customer of other carriers (or anyone connected over Wi-Fi).

What bugs me about this is when I see the mountain of cash Orange throws away doing a billion things that have nothing to do with mobile phones, the millions invested every year in assorted marketing, all so that in the end they can't manage to build a mobile site accessible to everyone. Anyway.

Note: I made pretty much the same remark the other day, when Sosh cranked out its iPhone app for tracking your plan, which doesn't even show how much data you've used. It's ridiculous.

Photo credit: AI-generated illustration

By Paingout