TeliaSonera nabs iPhone rights for Nordic and Baltic markets

Ok ok, we hear you tipsters, iPhone now official for Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia "later this year" thanks to a deal between Apple and TeliaSonera. At this point, only The Netherlands seems to be out of the loop in Europe.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[Mojo @ May 27th 2008 3:35AM]

What about Romania ? :) We are still in Europe you know :P

[timothy.abbott @ May 27th 2008 3:40AM]

im confused.

not that they just became now official in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.... but isn't there a new iPhone coming out in less that two weeks?

i hope so :S i just sold mine

[Ace b @ May 27th 2008 3:45AM]

So....this doesn't really help me at all.


*Goes back to bed*

[Crazy B @ May 27th 2008 3:46AM]

Older EU-countries first! Can't we sue Apple for discrimination of the Dutch (and, ok, Romanian) people?

[Andrew @ May 27th 2008 2:46PM]

Who cares about the EU? The continent is called Europe, the EU is just a group of countries.

And I imagine the number of iPhones Apple could sell in Romania is very, very small. The people in Romania that can afford it already have it.

[EI8HT @ May 27th 2008 3:47AM]

there still is no iphone in spain!!!

[Kelmon @ May 27th 2008 7:28AM]

I've not seen an official announcement about it, but apparently Telefonica have reached a deal to distribute the iPhone in Spain (http://blog.sevenclick.com/2008/05/09/movistar-surrenders-upon-the-king/). While I was able to link to the official Orange announcement (as terse as it was) for the iPhone in other EU countries, I can't see anything official for Spain so take this blog post with a pinch (or fist-full) of salt. Perhaps they are waiting until the announcement of the 3G iPhone itself next month before making the official announcement that it will be distributed in Spain. Still, it seems reasonable to assume that this will happen.

[straks @ May 27th 2008 3:59AM]

Not sure, but what about Belgium? I haven't heard anything about iphone in belgium yet... We do have the capital of europe here ;)

[Kelmon @ May 27th 2008 7:22AM]

Apparently the iPhone is coming to Belgium as part of a deal with Orange, so that'll be a release by Mobistar when it arrives (http://www.orange.com/en_EN/press/press_releases/cp080516uk.html). For others who have mentioned Romania, you'll note that Orange also bagged a deal for them as well.

[Ronald @ May 27th 2008 4:01AM]

What the hell! Apple why not The Netherlands!?!?!?!

This is insane...

[Ace b @ May 27th 2008 4:08AM]

This is Madness!!!

[munky @ May 27th 2008 5:04AM]

This! is! iphone!!!!

[Patriks7 @ May 27th 2008 5:14AM]

this is iSparta!!!!

[X-BLADE @ May 27th 2008 5:24AM]

This is unacceptapple!!

[Homeboy @ May 27th 2008 6:56AM]

I see what the four of you just did there.

[Jeebus @ May 27th 2008 12:43PM]

This is not your father's rotary phone.

[Cea @ May 27th 2008 4:02AM]

straks, Mobistar is getting iPhone for belgium

[ap666 @ May 27th 2008 4:03AM]

horray! i'm from lithuania ^^

[newswede @ May 27th 2008 4:11AM]

Too bad. I was hoping for Telenor as their network has been a bit more stable lately. Guess I'll have to grab a Telia SIM card now...oh wait ;)

[Sarig @ May 27th 2008 6:37AM]

Hmmph, Telia. That's the NetCom mobile network in Norway. I'd much prefer Telenor :/

[Sarig @ May 27th 2008 6:38AM]

Then again, the contract's only a year anyway ;)

[JonRemedy @ May 27th 2008 7:21AM]

Telenor's communications director said it was unlikely that the iPhone would be exclusive to one provider in Norway, because of the history of how phones have been sold here. I anticipate that Telenor will come with an announcement in not too long

[Henrik J @ May 27th 2008 4:15AM]

Hopefully it will be the 3G iPhone

[Jonathan Wilson @ May 27th 2008 4:18AM]

The reason for nothing from the Netherlands, Belgium, Romania etc is most likely that Apple hasn't found a phone carrier in those countries willing to offer the iPhone on terms Apple are happy with yet.

[Dauphin @ May 27th 2008 4:24AM]

Belgium is part of the deal between Orange (france telecom) and apple, in fact Mobistar is getting the exclusive rights to the iPhone in belgium, being that Mobistar is owned by Orange group, however there is the law that prevents carriers to block phones anyone company, so i'd like to see how that is gonna go, maybe they'll just have the exclusivity to SELL the iPhone, cause at the end ALL DEVICES MUST BE UNLOCKED according to belgian law...

[Kelmon @ May 27th 2008 7:31AM]

Agreed - I'll be interested to see both how the contract will work and how much the phone costs. Having come from the UK, and therefore been used to subsidized phones for little or no money, Belgium's prices for mobile phones came as something of a shock, to the point that I've not bought one here yet. Will the cost of this thing make me fall off my chair in shock? Probably...

[Dauphin @ May 27th 2008 8:07AM]

@Kelmon, i'm also living in Belgium since 2003 and when i got here i found it kinda crazy that there were no subsidies or anything to make the cost of the phones lower, but, i have to say i grew into it, specially cause i can swap SIM cards on any country that i like while with most of the other phones from america and any other country i lived in before, you had to have the phone hacked or unlocked.. i know prices are very high here like the Nokia N95 at a whooping 750€, but i'd expect no subsidies from Mobistar on the iPhone cause it is purely and simply illegal... i think that as much they'll get to SELL the phone exclusively on their shops for a determined period of time and then HOPE that the people take an iPhone plan with them, give the fact that the device is very data hungry and there are no cheap data plans (at least not unlimited ones) in any of the other carriers in Belgium.. so.. there you go, my vision in a nutshell

[j.d.ripper @ May 27th 2008 4:33AM]

The iPhone is coming to Belgium! :
Orange today announced a new agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Orange customers in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and Orange’s African markets later this year.


http://www.orange.com/en_EN/press/press_releases/cp080516uk.html

[mockingbird @ May 27th 2008 4:34AM]

It has to be 3G, cos you cannot sell others that are tied to a service in Finland.

[radman @ May 27th 2008 4:35AM]

well, this practically confirmed the 3G iPhone, as it's illegal for a Finnish mobile operator to sell non-3G phones without a contract...

[LordFarkward @ May 27th 2008 4:51AM]

not trying to be nit picky, but steve jobs himself has already confirmed it from day one of release of the 2.75G model... we just dunno what time this year the 3G will be coming out

[mrbiin @ May 27th 2008 4:40AM]

What about Iceland, last time I checked we are a part of Europe :)

[Jeebus @ May 27th 2008 12:44PM]

That sounds like a stretch.

[Tor Slettnes @ May 27th 2008 7:54PM]

And the Faroe Islands? Canary Islands? Cyprus? Luxembourg? Andorra? Lichtenstein? San Marino? The Vatican? Greece?

(That's not even counting the former Eastern Block countries..)

Seems to me that Mr. Thomas Ricker is not exactly up to snuff with his geography. Hrrmph.


BTW why do you need an iPhone on Iceland? I can hear it now:

- Halldor, I gottur meselfur einur iPhonum!
- Heildor, that is greatur! What can you do with ittur?
- I have mappur! I can findum seafoodur in Reykjavikur!
- Seafoodur? Oh Coddur! Greatur! You take it with you on your fishing boatum?
- No, blekfiska -- I mean octopossum! I find calamarium! And I get musikkum at Starbuksum!
- Starbuksum? You mean kaffihousum? We don't have any Starbuksum!
- Oppsan. Maybe this was not so greatum.

Then again, maybe there really IS a huge hidden market for the iPhone on Iceland, and Apple are really losing out big time here. Serves them right for being so restrictive (exclusive deals, no SIM-unlocking, etc..)

-tor

[John @ May 27th 2008 4:41AM]

*Norway*
This is the best day ive had in a long time , i work at a phone shop and people comes everyday and asks for the iphone , well i can tell them now to wait a few months and itll be here, i work for NetCom which is a part of Telisonera :D

[lance @ May 27th 2008 4:56AM]

I hear ya mrbiin! I've never seen so many phones running in jailbreak mode.

[Stelliot @ May 27th 2008 5:03AM]

IPhone has problem getting to Netherlands because Orange got sold to T-Mobile and soon Orange will not exist any longer in the Netherlands!

[Patriks7 @ May 27th 2008 5:16AM]

iPhone in Slovakia has been announced a couple weeks ago
and bringing it to Austria on orange makes no sense since its here on T-Mobile already :x
also wasn't Austria the one testing the 3G iPhone or something?

[rookieone @ May 27th 2008 5:31AM]

There is no iPhone in Luxembourg either, as far as I know. Even though it is possible that it will be coming here through that Vodafone deal. But so far there haven't been any official announcements.
No one cares about Luxembourg (or you don't know it exists)

[Wodheila @ May 27th 2008 7:22AM]

"No one cares about Luxembourg (or you don't know it exists)"

My sister and brother in law live in Luxembourg. The last time we went the girl and guy checking our bags thought it was a city in Belgium.

[Troels C @ May 27th 2008 5:32AM]

I'm not buying an iPhone with Telia. Two of my friends have ongoing consumer cases against Telia. Both to do with billing screw ups.

[Kees @ May 27th 2008 5:40AM]

We want the iPhone in The Netherlands!

[munky @ May 27th 2008 6:17PM]

hey, at least you have weed

[André @ May 27th 2008 5:49AM]

Hopefully Telia is not the only provider in Denmark...

[André @ May 27th 2008 6:11AM]

...because they have crap for 3G coverage. 3 on the other hand has the entirety of Denmark covered in a 3G blanket.

[TXX @ May 27th 2008 6:52AM]

Hehe true, but i would prefer TDC instead. 3 seems a bit "unreliable" and expensive.

[André @ May 27th 2008 7:06AM]

Sure but TDC does not have HSDPA (7.2 Mbit) yet and less country-wide coverage. I am currently with TDC (been for the last 10 years) as we speak but can change provider if needed.

[argor @ May 27th 2008 5:55AM]

i like to point out that iceland is a Nordic state and Vodafone Iceland did nabs iPhone rights few moths a go

[albert @ May 27th 2008 7:20AM]

What is your source on that? While Vodafone (which does not own any part of Vodafone Iceland) announced availability in 10 countries earlier this month, there is no announcement from Vodafone Iceland. (See vodafone.is, etc.)

[Tadas Simokaitis @ May 27th 2008 6:08AM]

Yeey. All power to Lithuania. and Vilnius is the capital of Europe! :)