Italians get home iPhone activations, third carrier

Italian iPhone customers will supposedly enjoy the leisure of activating their iPhone from the comforts of their own home, while a third company – 3 Italy – announced it would also sell the iPhone, come September. Macity writes that both Telecom Italia and Vodafone will not be able to activate the iPhone 3G at the store, and will instead take both the device and SIM card home to perform the activation through iTunes, similar to how the first iPhone was sold.

It is uncertain if this will, in any way, compromise official activations of the device, but the action is said to be guaranteed by the customer's signing of a 24-month contract with either Telecom Italia or Vodafone.

3 Italy – a division of Hutchison Mobile – will be the third carrier in Italy to carry the iPhone 3G, claiming that it will offer similar data and voice plans to Telecom Italia and Vodafone, but at a 25- to 30-percent discount. Translated, the Macity article appears to indicate that 3 Italy would offer the device for close to €90, with plans between €10 to €20 a month.

Filed under: iPhone, industry
Other story tags: Vodafone, Italy, Telecom Italia, Hutchison, 3 Italy