iPhone carriers

On September 20th, AT&T rolled out a new feature called the “A-List,” which gives qualifying customers unlimited calling to five people of their choice in individual plans, and ten for those with FamilyTalk plans.

Wireless carrier Vodafone announced on Tuesday that it will begin selling Apple's iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in the United Kingdom and Ireland sometime in early 2010. Per The Mac Observer, the announcement makes Vodafone the second company to score a deal that digs into what used to be O2's exclusive iPhone territory.

Nearly three days after finally activating its long-awaited multimedia messaging service for the iPhone 3G and 3GS handsets, wireless carrier AT&T said today it was “pleased with the rollout” despite continuing user complaints on its own Facebook page. The user base might not entirely agree. According to Macworld, many iPhone users complained late into the weekend and early today about the service not working or taking too long to send a photo. The service was activated mid-day Friday nationwide, after AT&T took heat from customers in June about not having it available when the iPhone 3GS launched. The complaints began rolling in later Friday.

Following last Friday's announcement that the iPhone would become available in China late this year, Apple has confirmed its agreement with China Unicom is not exclusive to the carrier. Per CNNMoney, an Apple spokesperson confirmed that the China Unicom contract is not exclusive. The person declined, however, to detail whether or not Apple is in negotiations with other possible carriers.

According to Bloomberg News, Apple may be nearing an agreement with OAO VimpelCom and OAO MegaFon, Russia's second and third largest wireless carriers, to finally bring the iPhone 3G to Russia officially. Rumor has it that they may start selling the device as early as this week, with Apple hoping both companies buy over a million phones each.

Turkcell, a leading wireless phone carrier in Turkey, has announced that they will be bringing the iPhone 3G to customers in Turkey some time later this year. TurnkCell currently holds 56% of the market in that country, and is one of three mobile carriers in the country. Vodafone announced back in May that they would also be carrying the device there as well.

We knew from early on that AT&T had agreed to pay Apple in exchange for exclusivity in the US after which the iPhone would be unlocked, but the exact date that their deal would expire has remained a mystery until today. Similarly, little is known about why AT&T changed from their previous payments to Apple to heavily subsidizing the devices. In what is a rare peak at the inner dealings between Apple and a carrier, USA Today claims to have inside information on both subjects.

Stories of unlocking cell phones has been buzzing around in the news lately. Where commonly the practice of unlocking cellphones involves buying unsubsidized units cheaply, unlocking them, and selling them overseas in large numbers, iPhones are being purchased in an expensive unsubsidized state, and adding more value on top of them.

Recently, wireless carrier T-Mobile announced that it will be bringing the iPhone 3G to the Netherlands. The carrier will be offering three plans, the cheapest starting at €30 per month with more details available on its web site.

In other news, Scandinavian carrier TeliaSonera has announced the complete list of Swedish prices for the iPhone 3G. The subscriptions, which will be divided into iMini, iMidi and iMaxi plans, in 100/100/100, 250/250/250 and 1,000/1,000/1,000 combinations of voice, SMS and data; new is that these will cost 299, 489 and 859 SEK a month, respectively.