Vodafone, the world's leading international mobile communications group, and Apple today announced that the highly anticipated iPhone 3G will be available in Australia, Italy, New Zealand and Portugal on July 11, and in the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, India, South Africa and Turkey later this year. iPhone 3G combines all the revolutionary features of iPhone with 3G networking that is twice as fast* as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs the hundreds of third party applications already built with the recently released iPhone SDK.

"We are very excited to bring iPhone 3G to many of our customers across Europe and emerging markets this summer," said Frank H. Rövekamp, global CMO, Vodafone Group. "Vodafone's extensive, high speed and reliable networks mean customers can enjoy a great Internet and communications experience on their iPhone 3G."

"We're excited to work with Vodafone, the world's largest mobile telecommunications company, to bring iPhone 3G to 10 countries across the globe," said Tim Cook, Apple's COO. "We can't wait to get this revolutionary product in the hands of even more people around the world."

In addition to availability in Italy through Vodafone, Apple will offer iPhone 3G at its retail store in Rome.

Australia, Italy, New Zealand and Portugal will be the first Vodafone markets to offer customers iPhone 3G for purchase on July 11. iPhone 3G will be available via Vodafone on both prepay and contract price plans which will include great value data bundles. Other markets will follow later this year and full details of specific launch dates and price plans will be made available soon by individual Vodafone operating companies. Customers in Vodafone's 10 markets where iPhone 3G will be available can pre-register online and in retail stores in the next few days.

*Based on 3G and EDGE testing. Actual speeds vary by site conditions.

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jaywontdart said: June 10, 2008  

glad we get it! As I keep mentioning I have an original iPhone, and am glad they didnt try and improve the looks of the iPhone too much! You cant improve on perfection Congratulations NZ!

brenz said: June 10, 2008  

prepay no longer? I read that release when it first hit vodafone's NZ website this morning, and just looking at it again, any mention of "prepay" has been removed... with no indication that the press release has been edited. Pretty sneaky. The sentence now reads: "iPhone 3G will be available via Vodafone on contract price plans which will include great value data bundles." I had been planning on buying one on prepay...

Philip Roy said: June 10, 2008  

Well the Apple pre-release (that this article is based on) still has it... http://www.apple.com/nz/pr/lib...afone.html

brenz said: June 10, 2008  

Vodafone's did this morning, but no longer: http://www.vodafone.co.nz/pers...one-3G.jsp

Philip Roy said: June 10, 2008  

Depends where you look.... http://www.vodafone.com/start/...ne_3g.html ...which makes the edit even more curious.

brenz said: June 10, 2008  

Yes, it makes you wonder when it's only the version on the Vodafone NZ site that has been scrubbed of any mention of prepay...

Philip Roy said: June 10, 2008  

I've emailed a couple of contacts at Vodafone NZ and hope I can get a clarification as to why the change has occurred.

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