Nordic Operators Pursue iPhone

Piggy-backing on the deluge of announcements across Europe this week regarding which carriers will get exclusive rights to the iPhone in their countries, Nordic operators have also begun mentioning that they too are vying for the prize. TeliaSonera and Telenor both claim to be in talks with Apple over the iPhone, but neither could confirm that a deal had been made at this time.

Telenor operates primarily in Norway, while TeliaSonera has large operations in Sweden and Finland. If either strikes a deal with Apple, it will probably for national exclusivity in their respective countries. "We have seen immense interest in the iPhone from our customers," explained Telenor spokesman Anders Krokan to Dow Jones. "We are still in talks, but I doubt we would be able to offer the iPhone this year."

Previously this week, Apple announced exlusive deals with carriers in the U.K., France and Germany. O2 got the U.K. deal [1], while Orange has exclusivity in France [2]. T-Mobile locked down the deal in Germany [3].  A lot of contreversy has revolved around Apple's revenue sharing plan for calls originating from the iPhone--a practice O2's chief defended [4] saying that such a system allows for the development of such innovative products.

For more:

- read this MarketWatch article [5]