Apple taps second iPhone partner in U.K.

Orange will carry the iPhone in the U.K. in the fourth quarter of this year, the operator announced Monday.

The move marks the end of competitor O2's lucrative exclusivity on Apple's handset in this country, and comes days after O2 announced the release details for the rival Palm Pre smartphone, on which it has U.K. exclusivity.

Orange did not say exactly when it will begin to carry the iPhone. When O2 launched its iPhones in November 2007, it did not specify the duration of its exclusivity deal with Apple, other than to describe it as "multiyear." The most conservative understanding of "multiyear" as "two-year" indicates that the earliest Orange could start stocking the handset is November 9.

All currently available versions of the iPhone--the 8GB 3G, the 16GB 3GS, and the 32GB 3GS--will be offered by Orange, a spokesperson for the company said. The France Telecom-owned operator has not given details of pricing. Orange sells the iPhone in 28 countries and territories worldwide.

The end of O2's iPhone exclusivity in the U.K. confirms rumors that had been circulating in recent months, and "fits in with O2 getting the Palm Pre," Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said.

"It's something we expected, given how Apple moved away from exclusivity deals in all the other countries except the U.K., Germany, and U.S.," Milanesi said. "Apple will get a larger footprint in the U.K., which is their biggest market outside the U.S."

Milanesi predicted that Orange will offer similar iPhone tariff pricing to that available on O2 and will rely instead on "differentiated offerings on services" to set it apart from its rival. O2 has various tariffs for the iPhone--for example, a 44.05-pound-per-month ($70 per month) tariff on a 24-month contract gives the user the iPhone 3GS for free.

The Gartner analyst also said O2 would be likely to position the Pre as an alternative to the iPhone for "people who want a similar experience but with a QWERTY keyboard."

Orange and T-Mobile are currently in talks regarding a merger, which is scheduled for mid-2010. A spokesperson for T-Mobile said Monday that the two operators are remaining "standalone operations" for now, and that the Deutsche Telekom-owned carrier has no plans to stock the iPhone.

David Meyer of ZDNet UK reported from London.

[myles taylor]

Now if they would just follow suit in the US! When they do, AT&T will bleed customers like crazy...including me.

[sharmajunior]

Just wait for next year. The end of the AT&T/Apple contract is near.

[krazytrixxxsta]

it going to really sucks for att

[mbenedict]

I think what's more interesting is O2's Pre... O2 being a GSM provider obviously... so come one Palm give us an unlocked GSM Pre already!!

Big win for O2 though having both the iPhone and the Pre.

[Mr. Dee]

This is probably the first shot at AT&T that they better get out of the way next year.

[solu1978]

Now only if iPhone is available other than AT&T in US.

[compbry15]

I hope the next gen of the iPhone breaks exclusivity with AT&T. It would be nice to finally upgrade 3G next summer to the next iteration and dump AT&T all at once.

[sargess25]

better still if iPhone were available, sim free, at local apple stores here in UK, so that you can pop in any sim card of any country without problem

[Mark_Anderson]

Oh it will be eventually. It'll cost you about £500 though.

[jlopezcnet]

The problem with the USA is that the only viable partner is T-Mobile USA. Unfortunately, they will not choose t-mobile because their pricing is way too low.

Sprint and Verizon are completely out of the question. Making a CDMA version would be impractical and unwise. It would create a headache for supporting. CDMA is also a battery hog and would probably cause the iPhone to need a charge within 4 hours sitting idle.

[sharmajunior]

But they can make it dual band (CDMA and GSM), just like the world edition phones on verizon.

[ajme]

Verizon's got a lot of work to do before it lights up its next-gen LTE network in 2010, and things are beginning to move along: the company just released the first set of specs for device manufacturers as part of its Open Development Initiative. It's still a rough draft, but there are a few big-picture tidbits buried in the dense jargon -- the LTE network will start out as a data-only service, and right now devices aren't required to support CDMA at all, which is a pretty bold move. That certainly makes sense as Verizon's test networks go live in the next few months, but the company's has already said that phones will be available at launch, so we're guessing things are going to change quickly as time marches on -- 60Mbps mobile downloads, here we come.

[abcd9009]

All true, however unlike AT&T - Verizon is not willing to give up control to Apple which is why it lost to AT&T in the first place. There's no question, Verizon has THE BEST network of all 4 major carriers in the US, however it has the worst smart phones just because they want tight control over "what's available for free". With the iPhone you don't need to pay Verizon for GPS or WiFi or Apps or Ringtones. All you're paying is a flat fee for Voice, Data, Text/MMS.

As much as I hate to say it, Verizon will NEVER get the iPhone unless they start thinking about how they screw their customers by blocking features on the phone. Jobs won't allow Verizon to block any feature on the iPhone and right now Jobs has the power thanks to the popularity and the proved track record of the iPhone.

[Been_there_Saw_it_before]

With all of the ill will expressed at ATT on these forums over the past two weeks, maybe Apple will take the lead to protect itself from ATT and in fact make a CDMA version. The difference is trivial and any intelligent engineer can redesign the radio portion of their phone. It is simply not that hard or expensive.

The news here in Ireland that it is Vodafone that will handle iPhone in UK & Ireland

[krazytrixxxsta]

it about time other providers in the u.s get the iphone. hell, even tmobile in europe have the iphone.