Vodafone, Telecom Italia, America Movil To Carry iPhone

Vodafone and Telecom Italia announced on Tuesday that they have both signed contracts with Apple to carry the iPhone in Italy — the first sign that Apple may be relaxing its demands for revenue sharing with individual carriers in exchange for exclusivity.

The biggest deal is the one with Vodafone. Having lost the bidding war to carry the iPhone in its home market to O2, UK-based Vodafone got its revenge with this terse, two-sentence press release:

“Vodafone today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the globe. Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network.”

This is an important deal. Vodafone is the world’s second largest mobile phone carrier, after China Mobile. At the end of 2007 it had, through wholly owned and partially owned subsidiaries, the equivalent of 252 million customers in 66 countries.

One day after Vodafone announced it would be carrying the iPhone in 10 countries in Europe, Asia and Australia, Reuters reported that America Movil will be bringing the iPhone to Latin America.

America Movil is a big player. With more than 150 million subscribers, the Mexico City-based Fortune 500 company is the largest mobile operator — and the largest corporation — in Latin America, with subsidiaries in Central America, South America and much of the Caribbean. Its founder and chairman is Carlos Slim Helu, one of the richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth $67.8 billion.