T-Mobile agrees to iPhone revenue deal - paper

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom's mobile phone unit, T-Mobile, has agreed to a revenue-sharing deal that will let it bring Apple Inc's iPhone to Germany, a German daily reported on Tuesday.

In order to sell the iPhone, T-Mobile will share 10 percent of the revenue it makes from calls and data transfers by customers over iPhones with Apple, the Financial Times Deutschland said, without citing sources.

The deal is to be announced at the IFA consumer electronics trade fair in Berlin next week, the report said.

A T-Mobile spokesman declined to comment.

French operator Orange, owned by France Telecom and Telefonica O2 had also agreed to the terms, the paper said.

Apple has said it will start selling iPhones in Europe this year and in Asia in 2008, but has given no further details.

Speculation has swirled as investors are keen to know which European wireless operator will sell the iPhone, which comes with an in-built iPod, web browser and e-mail software and has been available in the United States since the end of June.

Apple signed up top U.S. telecoms operator AT&T Inc. in an exclusive deal for at least two years to sell the phone in the United States, where customers willing to sign a two-year contract are expected to pay $499 to $599 for a handset.

Deals with carriers in France, Germany and Britain would mimic a three-country strategy Apple pursued at the launch of its popular iTunes online music store in Europe in 2004.