SINGAPORE – Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), Bharti Airtel, Globe Telecom and Optus announced on Monday that they have signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Singapore, India, the Philippines and Australia later this year.

No financial terms were disclosed.

SingTel holds a 30.5% stake in India's Bharti and 44.5% in the Philippines' Globe. It owns Optus, a telecommunications operator in Australia.

As at end-2007, SingTel had about 2.3 million mobile subscribers in Singapore and around seven million users in Australia.

Bharti currently has about 64 million subscribers, while Globe reported a 21.3 million mobile subscriber base for the quarter ended March 31.

Apple has said the iPhone will start being offered in Asia sometime this year. - CNA/vm