July 11th is slowly getting here. Apple is preparing the official launch for 22 countries and carriers around the world will be trying to make the most of those first days. Orange has just announced their pricing offer for France. The iPhone will be available starting July 17th in France for both personal and business usage.

Orange has about 66% 3G coverage in France so I guess they can afford to do as they please when it comes to iPhone pricing and plans. The 8GB iPhone will cost 149 Euro or about $233 and the 16GB version will cost 199 Euro or about $313. Just a few dollars more than what AT&T has to offer.

As for plans you will be able to choose from the “Orange for iPhone” plans (check the picture above), or the Origami Star (from 3 hours), First or Jet plans. Should you want other plans, excepting time-cutoff and pay-as-you-go plans, the 8Gb iPhone will come to 199 euro while the 16Gb model will be 249 euro.

In case you are an old customer you’ll get the option of buying the 8GB 3G iPhone from 199 euro and the 16Gb version from 249 euro with a 2 year agreement. Not only that but those of you that have bought an iPhone prior to June 12th with an Orange plan will be able to get the 3G iPhone for 99 Euro with a 100 Euro refund valid until October 31st 2008. Of course this offer implies a 24 month contract too.

I think they could work out better data plans as what they have so far offer only 500MB of monthly data usage which might not be enough.

And where’s the pay as you go price guys? You do sell pay as you go plans in France right?