If Orange's exclusive partnership agreement in France has been broken by the law, AT&T is still the only carrier supporting the iPhone in USA. AT&T is willing to extend the current contract ending in 2010 to at least end of 2011.Discussion will most likely be hard. Indeed, Apple does not need to have exclusive deals to recover some of the financial investment for developing the iPhone. The mobile phone is now a true success everywhere it is available, and carriers are supporting it via the usual long-term subscription plan. So, Apple might be rather more interested into further increasing the number of carriers for the iPhone in a country, than being chained to a single one. Of course, AT&T does not want to drop this perfect tool for attracting new customers, and the forthcoming new iPhone to be released in June might demonstrate once more this effect. AT&T might have to sign a big check to Apple to preserve its exclusive partnership.
