Rebate opens up German iPhone market

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German mobile services reseller Debitel will offer a 600 euro ($891) rebate to customers with an Apple (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) iPhone bought from T-Mobile (DTEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), destroying much of T-Mobile's competitive advantage.

Debitel -- which resells airtime it buys from T-Mobile and rivals Vodafone (VOD.L: Quote, Profile, Research), O2 (TEF.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) and E-Plus (KPN.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) in Germany -- said on Tuesday it would pay the difference in price between an unlocked iPhone and one locked to T-Mobile.

T-Mobile has an exclusive deal with Apple to sell the iPhone in Germany, but was ordered by a court last week to offer customers an option to buy an unlocked iPhone.

It agreed to do so -- at a price of 999 euros, compared with 399 euros for an iPhone locked into a T-Mobile contract.

Debitel said it would offer iPhone contracts starting at 40 euros per month -- cheaper than T-Mobile's 49-euro minimum -- including up to 200 calling minutes or 200 SMS text messages in all its shops starting from Wednesday.

It said customers using Vodafone, E-Plus and O2 networks would get all Apple services apart from visual voicemail.

"We are happy to offer iPhone buyers the freedom of choice that customers are entitled to expect from a service provider," Oliver Steil, Debitel's marketing chief, said in a statement.

Debitel, which is owned by Permira PERM.UL, had complained to Germany's telecoms regulator before last week's court ruling.

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan, editing by Will Waterman)