Italy will have two iPhone carriers

I wouldn't conclude that "Italians love pay-as-you-go plans" based on the statistics. I believe we had prepaid cards pushed on us as a way for the carriers to make more money of off top-up fees (only recently banned).

Hey guys,
I'm from Italy and I have good news for you. Vodafone completely lacks of a EDGE network and it's *really* unlikely that they're going to use TIM's EDGE network just for the iPhone.
So, for the ones who still doubt about a 3G iPhone, this in my opinion is the final sign that there WILL be a 3G in the next iP.

M.

Hey you guys, I live in Val di Pesa, FI and I have my iphone for 3 months now, I ordered it online on International-Orders.com That took 2 days to ship it, 2 days! And it was anyway cheaper than buying it from telecom or tim later on!!!

one thing that seems to be very consistent with apple is that it seems to be at realising their mistakes and are acting quicker to correct them - the iphone sdk is one example, the apple tv another and now their iphone business model

now if only they would release a tower mac with core duos and make the itunes store eu wide

Actually I'm using an iphone with vodafone, what I hope it's a good data profile from the carriers, data plan are very expensive here, for my profile I should (because they gave me it free to remain with them :-) ) pay 20 € for 512 mb/month.
It's also true that here prepaid it's the preferred option, and most of the phones are sold unlocked

This could be a preview to iPhone being available on all networks everywhere with no exclusitivity.

Please, Apple, let it be this way in other countries :(

I think both operators will offer contract and pre-paid offers for the iPhone. Italy is a very rich market for mobile industry, a recent report said that in Italy there are more active sim cards (around 60millions) than citizens (55millions, babies included)

The news is right; Telecom Italia gave the announcement, if if Tim will be commercialising the iPhone. That because anti-trust law is a joke in Italy, so even if the companies are supposed to be split, the capital and the management is the very same. The fact that this announcement was given by Telecom Italia is ludicrous. And as an Italian I am not very proud of that.

At any rate yes, contracts in Italy are almost non-existent among non-business users.
Bye,
Davide

A word of advice, Telecom Italia is the fixed line company (like Verzion), while TIM (Telecom Italia's mobile division) is the mobile/cell/wireless provider (like Verizion Wireless).