Orange to sell Apple iPhones

Orange has announced that it will soon start selling Apple's iPhone 3G and 3GS mobile phones in the UK.

This marks the end of a two-year period during which the smartphones were only available on the O2 network.

Orange has been selling iPhones in other countries, including France, for some time. It said the iPhone would be on sale from its website and high-street shops later in the year, but did not give any details on prices or exact availability dates.

O2 said it had been "proud to offer an exclusive iPhone deal to our 20 million customers for the last two years", and that it "always knew that iPhone exclusivity was for a limited period of time".

Orange has created a website where would-be iPhone users can register their interest at www.orange.co.uk/iPhone.