Non-exclusive Deals
On May 6, 2008, Vodafone announced that they signed a deal with Apple to sell the iPhone in Australia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa, and Turkey.
Subsequent announcements confirmed that Apple is moving away from exclusive one-carrier deals. Soon after Vodafone's announcement, TIM announced it would also be selling the iPhone in Italy, on May 12, 2008 Optus confirmed it would sell it in Australia and SingTel confirmed that it would be selling the iPhone in India through its Indian Joint Venture, Airtel.
On June 4, 2008, SoftBank Mobile released a press release stating that it will start selling the iPhone in Japan during 2008.
Russia's second largest mobile operator Beeline announced on August 28, 2008 that they signed a contract with Apple to enter Russian market by the late 2008. This deal is rumoured to be non-exclusive according to the unofficial statements made by some officials in two remaining mobile operators that belong to so-called Russia's Big Three – MTS and MegaFon - to enter iPhone 3G on Russian market simultaneously with Beeline. As it was predicted, MegaFon issued the press release about the same deal on September 2, 2008. MTS, the largest mobile network of Russia and CIS still hasn't released any statement.
On November 14, 2008, Vodafone Egypt and Mobinil started selling the iPhone 3G in Egypt. This comes after Vodafone's deal with Apple Inc. earlier in May. The iPhone 3G is priced at EG£3,800 and EG£4,600 for the 8 GB and 16 GB models respectively. Customers must also sign up for one of 3 service plans to accompany the phone.
On September 28, 2009, Orange UK announced that they were to become the second operator of the iPhone in the UK, ending an exclusive deal O2 had done since 2007. Orange later announced that the iPhone will be released on November 10, with pricing plans starting from £29.36 on contract and £440 for the 3GS 16GB on pay as you go. On the following day, Vodafone UK also announced that they will be selling the iPhone by early 2010, becoming the third UK network and Vodafone's 11th country to offer the iPhone.
Read more about this topic: History Of The I Phone
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