Japan’s Softbank and Spain’s Telefonica have become the latest high-profile mobile operators to announce plans for launch of Apple’s iPhone device this year. The Softbank deal will see the iPhone enter one of the world’s most advanced mobile phone markets, although the deal has surprised analysts who expected Japanese market-leader NTT DoCoMo to win the contract. Softbank ranks third in terms of total subscribers in Japan but is the country’s fastest growing operator. Softbank did not confirm whether the deal involves the future 3G version of the device – which is expected to be unveiled next Monday – but speculation suggests this is the case. Japan has a healthy W-CDMA/HSPA customer base, but does not have the EDGE networks used by the existing version of the iPhone.

Meanwhile, Telefonica said today it has reached an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in Spain later this year. The operator will be the first company to sell the device in the country, although Telefonica already sells the iPhone in the UK and Ireland through its subsidiary O2. Telefonica did not provide details on whether the deal is exclusive or includes rights to sell the 3G version of the handset. Today’s two deals add to a flurry of recent iPhone operator announcements around the world, including SingTel, Vodafone, Orange and Hutchison.