Australians will have choice of three carriers for iPhone

Sources told Australian IT Thursday that Telstra will offer the iPhone 3G, making it the third carrier to do so in the country.

Telstra is Australia's biggest 3G carrier with over 2 million customers. It has a little over 9 million subscribers overall, according to a company fact sheet.

With three carriers now offering iPhone service for Australia, Hutchinson's 3 could be the only other major carrier remaining without any kind of a deal. Competitors Optus and Vodafone had previously announced they would begin sales on July 11.

There is extremely high interest for the device: Vodafone said its pre-registration Web site has seen about 40,000 visitors daily, and Optus has actually stopped its practice of accepting deposits for the iPhone, citing high demand.

Although the company has declined to comment publicly on any deal, sources indicate Apple gave Telstra executives a tour of the new Apple store in Sydney. That store opened on Thursday and is the second largest of its retail locations in the world.

The site said that the carrier would likely not join its rivals in selling the phone on that day, instead targeting a July 22 launch. It is not immediately clear why there would be a delay, but it probably has something to do with coming to a decision on carriage late in the game.

First generation iPhones were not sold in the country. Australian IT said the iPhone 3G is compatible with the 850 MHz band that Telstra uses to deliver its 3G services.