News 

Optus joins Vodafone in Australia, the second country after Italy where two mobile operators will carry the smartphone.

Deals have also been signed with SingTel in Singapore, Bharti Airtel in India and Globe Telecom in the Philippines.

South Korea could soon be added to this list, as telecommunications regulators thave just relaxed rules on mobile phone design, allowing the sale of Research in Motion's Blackberry for the first time.

The country had enforced rules on the design of handsets which give an advantage to homegrown companies such as Samsung and LG. The exception to these rules allowing RIM to do business in the country follows two years of appeals by the manufacturer.

Last week Vodafone announced that it had secured the rights to the iPhone in 10 countries: Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy - where Telecom Italia has also reached a deal with Apple, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey.

But first, Apple has to get some handsets for them to sell, having this week run out of stock.