Countering a previous announcement that said Visual Voicemail would not be available in France until February, users in metropolitan areas of France are reporting that they have full access to the service. SetteB.IT recently spoke with Louis Michel Aymard, spokesman for France Telecom, and he confirmed that visual voice mail had been operational since November 29th. This is especially good news for French iPhone users, since Orange has sold 30,000 of them to customers in five days, with 48% signing up for the two year contract.
Visual Voicemail is currently in dispute in the US, with Klausner Technologies suing Apple for breaching two patents relating to the technologies inherent in the service. Apple is not alone in this, as Klausner is also suing Comcast, eBay, and Cablevision on the same platform.