iPhone 3G Hot in Germany, Going to Russia?

By Geoff Duncan August 25, 2008

The CEO Deutsche Telecom’s wireless unit T-Mobile, Hamid Akhavan, says it has sold over 120,000 Apple iPhone 3Gs since the devices went on sale July 11—more than 75,000 in Germany alone—in spite of problems actually getting the phones into customers’ hands. The comment came in an interview with the weekly German magazine Focus.

T-Mobile has been struggling to work out delivery problems with the iPhone, but claims delayed orders will all be filled by the end of August. In addition to selling the iPhone 3G in Germany, T-Mobile is also offering the iPhone 3G in the Netherlands and Austria.

Akhaven also said that reports of 3G connectivity problems from iPhone users have largely been restricted to Dutch customers, rather than German or Austrian users. Last week, Apple released a software update that was, in part, supposed to improve the iPhones 3G reception, but reports have been mixed. Already, Apple is facing a possible class action lawsuit in the United States over problems with the iPhone’s telephone and 3G data capabilities.

Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that two Russian mobile operators—including the largest, Mobile TeleSystems—are on tap to start selling the iPhone 3G in Russia starting in October. Eldar Murtazin of the Moscow-based Mobile Research Group says Mobile TeleSystems is expecting to sell a million iPhones in the next two years, and that sales of iPhones from all Russian mobile carriers might total 3.5 million iPhones in the same timeframe.

iPhones are not officially for sale in Russia, but reports have as many as 600,000 unlocked iPhones already in use there.

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