iPhone in Russia will not be tied to a specific operator

The iPhone in Russia will not be tied to a specific operator. MTS, Vimpelcom and MegaFon signed an agreement with Apple and on September 26 should start sales. Operators will buy them for $ 400, and sell them for 1000, reports Vedomosti .

Three sources close to different parties to the negotiations were told about signing an agreement between Apple and Russian operators. According to two of them, the Vimpelcom and MegaFon agreements provide that they will have to sell 1.5 million iPhone each in the next two years. MTS managed to achieve milder conditions: 1 million iPhone for three years.

According to the sales contract, sources should begin on September 26, but most likely, due to customs difficulties, this date will be moved at the beginning of October. It is difficult to meet such terms - this device in Russia has not yet been certified, the analyst Mobile Research Group Eldar Murtazin agrees.

A source in one of the cellular companies says that the iPhone will be sold for about $ 1,000 with the possibility of changing the operator. Or installment plan with an initial contribution of $ 200, but then with a mandatory contract. Murtazin knows that the Big Three operators will purchase $ 399 iPhone.

The representative of Maczone (the official Apple dealer) Pyotr Semenov said that his company is negotiating iPhone on this network with all three cellular operators. “We do not comment on rumors and market speculations,” said Betan Lloyd, a representative of Apple, the American office of Apple. The head of Apple in Russia Valery Lanovenko and representatives of the "Big Three" refrained from commenting.