Subsidized 3G iPhone in the United States?

There's a story by Fortune that AT&T is going to cut the price of the 3G iPhone by $200 when it's introduced this summer. That would make the iPhone more attractive to a larger audience. The story says that a 2 year contract would still be required. So, that means an 8 GB 3G iPhone could be had for as little as $199!

In France, Apple is pressuring Orange, the exclusive carrier there, to subsidize the iPhone to spur lagging sales. But there may be some difficulties getting around french anti-competitive laws. In Italy, they've managed to strong arm Apple into letting. The UK and Germany already offer steep discounts on the iPhone, with Germany's T-Mobile offering a tiered subsidy plan.

Ireland's O2 has no such subsidy plans. In fact a spokesperson for O2 Ireland, has said, in not so many word, that they plan to stick it to customers because O2 believes that Apple fanatics will buy it at any price. Pat Phelan, CEO of Irish telecoms Cubic Telecom, says this two tier pricing scheme amounts to a tax, he calls the Paddy Tax 2.

And finally, it looks like Apple has worked out a deal with Rogers and our neighbors to the north in Canada. Rogers can support both the current Edge network as well as 3G. They'll likely see the iPhone there very soon. No word on subsidies. We just might get a flood of Yukes coming down here to smuggle the little beauties across the border, eh.