3 UK Abandons Multimedia Ambition, Fancies iPhone Carriage

3 UK wants to pick up the iPhone if O2’s exclusive UK deal with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) comes to an end, says CEO Kevin Russell (via Guardian.co.uk). With Apple now having abandoned carrier exclusivity in some territories like Russia and Czech Republic to meet its sales target, who’d bet against another network being given the chance?

Russell also said 3, the UK’s number five network with just over 3.7 million active users, has abandoned its multimedia pretensions. The company launched under chief executive Colin Tucker in 2003 and made much of its video-calling capabilities and mobile football highlights. But pragmatic Russell wants to stick to the basics: “We are quite simple