Orange and Apple today announced that the iPhone 3G will be available in Austria, Portugal and Switzerland on July 11and in France on July 17. It will launch in additional markets across Europe, the Middle East and Africa later this year. Orange will begin taking pre-orders for iPhone 3G later this month. iPhone combines three products into one small, lightweight device–a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, and it puts the Internet in your pocket with the best email, web browsing, search and Maps applications ever on a mobile phone.

"At Orange we believe in making the Internet more personal–giving our customers fast access to the information and entertainment that they want, wherever they are," said Olaf Swantee, head of Orange’s Global Mobile Operations. "iPhone takes advantage of our widespread 3G networks and together we are making the mobile experience for our customers even better."

"We're excited to extend our relationship with Orange to bring iPhone to more than 12 markets across the globe," said Tim Cook, Apple’s COO. "We can't wait to get this revolutionary phone in the hands of even more people around the world."
Orange’s mobile networks use the fastest available technologies with speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps. The combination of widespread EDGE, Wi-Fi, 3G and HSDPA networks mean customers can fully enjoy the mobile Internet almost wherever they go. In addition, Orange will offer a range of new services, tariffs and benefits for iPhone customers.
 
iPhone will launch in Austria, Portugal and Switzerland on July 11 and in France on July 17. Orange customers in the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Luxembourg, Belgium, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Orange’s African markets can purchase iPhone later this year. Customers will be able to pre-order from their local Orange websites and iPhone will be available through many of Orange’s 6,500 direct retail stores.