Vodafone UK Interested in Having the iPhone 3G

The race towards having the iPhone available for customers in the UK seems to have caught yet another carrier in the country, namely Vodafone. While only Orange and T-Mobile have been previously rumored to be interested in having the Apple device available in their offerings as soon as O2's exclusivity deal ended, now we learn that Vodafone is also interested in the handset.

According to The Guardian, Andy Halford, Vodafone's chief financial officer, stated that the carrier was interested in having the device available for its customers in more countries than at the moment. Although the operator sells the iconic Apple handset in 11 countries, none of them is a European key market (in Germany it comes via T-Mobile, while in the UK it is available via O2), and the carrier certainly does not enjoy this state of facts.

“It's a good product and we would love to have it in the portfolio in more countries,” Halford reportedly stated. This means that Vodafone might be set to challenge O2's exclusivity on the iPhone, just like T-Mobile and Orange have also been reported to plan on inking deals with Apple. According to some of the previous rumors, T-Mobile was even set to buy the iPhone from other markets to sell it in the UK, so as to lure customers from O2.

“There are other markets where we think more consolidation would be a good thing,” Halford said, referring to the UK. However, the discussions are on the distribution of Apple's iPhone 3G model, while the 3GS flavor might remain available only via the company's exclusive deals. Apple would have a lot to win with this move, since there are a lot of customers who would rather go for another device than sign with O2, and the presence of the iPhone with more carriers in the country would mean a certain success for Apple.