German newspaper FT Deutschland, the Financial Times' German-speaking sister paper, is reporting that the ink is freshly drying on contracts between Apple and T-Mobile, Orange and O2 for the lucrative iPhone contracts in Germany, France and the UK respectively.  While no official announcements have been made by any of the involved parties, it is believed that they'll use the IFA Trade Fair held in Berlin on August 31st to publicise the deal.

In a move contrary to existing hardware deals, Apple is believed to be taking an unheard-of 10-percent share of each carriers' revenues made from calls and data use of iPhone customers.  Management-level spokespersons from each company have previously made clear the potential halo-effect being involved with Apple can bestow, and they're obviously hoping to make up any revenue loss from the contract with increased sales and higher-than-average customer use.

This marks the latest point in the Euro-iPhone contest, a battle between carriers that has seen most fingered for the deal.  Up until only last week Vodafone was believed to be most likely to clinch the contract, while early predictions suggested that an announcement would be as late as the Apple Expo at the end of September.