UK Wireless provider Orange issued a statement today stating that the carrier will begin offering the iPhone in the UK and related territories.

This effectively ends the exclusivity agreement that O2 has held for awhile now on the iPhone.

Part of the statement is here from the site:

“Orange, which has the largest 3G network covering more people in the UK than any other operator, will sell iPhone in all Orange direct channels including Orange shops, the Orange webshop and Orange telesales channels, as well as selected high street partners. A pre-registration site for customers to log their interest has been launched at www.Orange.co.uk/iPhone”

It has been rumored for awhile now that Apple would end its exclusivity agreement in the region, and now it appears that is the case. It could be a harbinger of things to come in the US and its agreement with AT&T, if whispers prove to be true.

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Multiple sources are reporting that that T-Mobile UK is in talks with Apple to bring the iPhone 3G – last year’s model – to its mobile service, taking away the phone’s exclusivity from competing carrier O2.

Reports from Register Hardware and guardian.co.uk suggest the appearance of the iPhone 3G on the British T-Mobile network could happen in the next few months.

The Register said O2’s exclusive agreement for the iPhone 3GS appears to remain secure. O2 would also carry the iPhone 3G.

“This represents a major shift in how Apple markets the iPhone,” The Register said, “which currently relies on network exclusives to get a decent subsidy; giving that up shows either greater confidence or reflected disappointment in how O2 has priced up the latest offering.”

The report from guardian.co.uk goes a step further: It states it is “understood” that both Orange and Vodafone are interested in providing the iPhone on their networks as well, if Apple changes its strategy. If that were to come to pass, all of the UK’s major cell phone carriers would provide some version of the iPhone.

Richard Moat, T-Mobile UK’s new managing director, has taken his position as the company is in the midst of financial trouble. Because T-Mobile does not offer the best handset selection, gaining access to the iPhone 3G would be a major coup for Moat, and a boon for choice in the UK.

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From O2′s website:

iPhone 3GS is currently out of stock:
Due to the phenomenal demand for the new iPhone 3GS, we’ve temporarily run out of stock online, over the phone and in our retail stores.

We expect additional stock of the new iPhone 3G S to be available online, over the phone and in our retail stores at the end of this week.

Carphonewarehouse, O2′s partner in the UK has stock of the 32GB iPhone 3GS available for purchase but are not currently listing the 16GB version as available

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They have both the iPhone 16GB S and iPhone 32GB S available. The iPhone 16GB S is available from free on selected tariff’s and the iPhone 32GB S from £96.89 on selected tariff’s.

More details available at the Carphonewarehouse.

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In a move that seems a little strange, Play.com has order pages live for both 8GB and 16GB models.

The 8GB model is offered in Play.com’s words as “Sim Free / Unlocked” and is up for grabs for £549.99 with free delivery. The 16GB model is priced at £649.99. Not cheap, but then again, unlocked iPhones are a pretty rare commodity these days.

From the Play.com website:

This is a genuine Sim Free mobile phone and therefore unlocked to all UK networks.
It is not unlocked from a UK or European network and is available due to EU legislation ensuring the sale of sim free mobile phones.
Comes with a full manufacturer warranty.

In the US iPhone operator AT&T is now offering “commitment-free” iPhones from $599 and in the UK O2 recently made changes to contract iPhone pricing to tempt more customers into trying it out.

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The app is brought to you by the same people who released the web based service O2mms.net (now iphonemms.net).

The advantages with the native app are:

The app is a free download and it’s free to receive all MMS messages on your iPhone. When you get a MMS message O2 send you a text with a 4 digit pin number and a web address to view it. Instead of going to the web address you just launch the app, enter your 4 digit pin and the message will be downloaded onto your iPhone.

There is a charge for sending MMS messages which works out at about 35p/mms. Because this is not an official O2 release messages can’t be charged to your account but you simply order credits through the app itself and pay with Paypal.

The MMS Photo Messaging app is available to download from the app store.

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Unfortunately, some people really don’t get it. They are wondering if Stuff magazine from United Kingdom surveyed these people during the first few weeks when the second generation iPhone became available. During this period, everything about the device seemed so rosy and the hype was extremely different compared to the other mobile phone debuts. Other iPhone users are now wondering if the UK iPhone customers got the same product as they did.

Even though there were so many problems arising in Apple Inc.’s device, the iPhone has still won the hearts of the users in United Kingdom. This is also where the iPhone has the strongest sales currently.

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That’s good news for Apple, especially since the 3G launch went rather poorly in the UK, with limited availability early on, and activation issues were rampant and ongoing (a scenario US customers may be quite familiar with).

Apple and O2 are gearing for continued strong sales during the holiday shopping quarter. Considering the recently launched O2′s a pay-as-you-go option, they’ll probably hit the sales mark quite easily.

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Pay & Go customers can now enjoy the iPhone 3G without a monthly contract. The new iPhone 3G 8GB for Pay & Go will be available for £349.99 and the 16GB version for £399.99.

This also includes unlimited browsing and Wi-Fi for the first 12 months after you activate your iPhone 3G*. At the end of the 12 months you can continue to receive unlimited browsing and Wi-Fi for just £10 per month. We’ll notify you before the end of the 12 month period by text and you can easily unsubscribe if you choose to do so.

It will be available to buy from 16th September in O2 stores, The Carphone Warehouse and Apple stores.

Please note visual voicemail and call merging are not available with Pay & Go. You’ll also need to change your data settings to use services such as Mobile Internet. Take a look at the activation tab on this page for more information.

*Unlimited data and Wi-Fi applies to use in the UK only, subject to excessive usage policy. Unlimited Wi-Fi is available at any of the Wi-Fi hotspots from our partners The Cloud or BT Openzone. Terms apply.

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Stock levels of iPhones in the UK are improving now with the Carphonewarehouse listing all stores with stock of the 8GB version and more than 300 stores with 16GB stock. They are also excepting online orders for 8GB and 16GB Black and White versions.

O2 have yet to open there online store for iPhones but again list plenty of shops with stock of iPhones.

Carphonewarehouse stores with stock can be found here.

O2 stores with stock can be found here.

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