Orange UK will begin the selling the iPhone from next month in time for a holiday season showdown with rival UK iPhone operator O2, reports The Guardian. Orange’s launch will be the first time that the iPhone has been made available in the UK from more than one operator and brings to an end O2 UK’s exclusive hold over the device. According to the report, Orange is understood to be planning to launch the iPhone on 10 November, the day after O2’s two-year exclusive contract comes to an end. The device will be sold via Orange’s own chain and via independent retailer, Phones4U. Carphone Warehouse – the only independent retailer able to stock the iPhone under O2’s exclusive deal – is also expected to sell the Orange iPhone, though the operator declined to comment on this. Orange claims to have had over 200,000 customers register their interest for the iPhone after setting up a dedicated pre-registration webpage in August. Orange UK boss Tom Alexander told The Guardian after signing the deal that the operator is looking at a number of ways to differentiate its iPhone offer, including adding accessories and pre-loading certain applications.

Vodafone has also recently announced it will begin offering the device in the UK, but is expected to miss the holiday season, launching the device early next year. Meanwhile, Kevin Russell, chief executive of 3 UK – the country’s smallest operator – said last week that he also hopes to be offering the iPhone sometime next year. “I would expect the iPhone to be on the 3 network sometime during 2010,” he told a Westminster eForum event in London. “At the moment, we don’t have the iPhone. We don’t really have any smartphones but if we improve our range of smartphones and introduce the iPhone then our data traffic will grow massively.”