Italian iPhone carriers

Italy will be one of the first countries in the world to support the iPhone on multiple carriers, an announcement reveals. Local carrier Telecom Italia, also known as TIM, has declared that it will also sell the device alongside Vodafone, which today uncovered its plans to sell the device in 10 countries around the world. Responding to further inquiries, TIM will only elaborate that it has "signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone in Italy within the year."

Since its debut in June of 2007, the iPhone has only ever been officially carried by one carrier per country, such as AT&T in the United States, or O2 in the UK and Ireland. France's Orange and Germany's T-Mobile have offered "unlocked" devices, but the companies are also the only point of distribution within their respective regions.

A number of analysts have predicted that the iPhone would be sold through multiple carriers per country, but candidate countries were initially expected to include the likes of Australia.

by MacNN Staff