By Chris Nicholls
TURIN: Telecom Italia has also announced they will distribute the iPhone in Italy, despite Vodafone’s announcement, leaving the door open for Telstra and Optus to distribute the iPhone here.
The agreement seemingly brings to an end the controversial exclusive distribution system, used in the US to tie iPhone users to the AT&T network.
When called by Current.com.au, Optus refused to comment, but it is understood Optus is in the running. Telstra said while they had been in talks with Apple last year, nothing further had been confirmed. 3 was unavailable for comment.
While unlocked iPhones have been made legally available in France, due to the country’s consumer rights laws, other countries have had to hack iPhones using readily available software to make them work on their local networks.
Whether this precedent will be followed in other countries remains to be seen.