News.blog: Apple chooses European iPhone carriers

Apple has chosen T-Mobile, O2 and Orange as its European launch partners for the iPhone after wrangling a revenue-sharing agreement, according to the Financial Times.

The four companies are set to announce their partnership by the end of the month, the report said. The deals would require the carriers to share 10 per cent of all revenue from voice and data services over the iPhone with Apple, according to the report. Apple has a revenue-sharing agreement in place with AT&T, the exclusive iPhone carrier in the US.

No new details surfaced in the report about the type of iPhone that would hit Europe, but most industry observers think Apple has a 3G model in mind. T-Mobile provides mobile service to Germany, Orange operates in France and O2 is based in the UK.

Apple has said it wants to launch the iPhone in Europe by the end of this year. Tim Cook, the company's chief operating officer, mentioned that Apple wants to start in Europe with "a few major countries", and France, Germany and the UK probably fall into that category.