In Italy everybody was excited to hear that TIM (the mobile company of the once telecommunication monopolist Telecom Italia) would be selling the new 3G iPhone starting from this summer.

But today Vodafone made an unexpected announcement:

Vodafone today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the globe. Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network.

So we will be able to buy an unlocked iPhone in almost all the countries that don't have a official "sim-locked" reseller yet: this includes Italy and New Zealand as well.

This news also marks a important change in Apple sales policy: Italy is the first country where the iPhone is sold without any exclusive agreement with a single carrier.