Apple is set to dump its policy of only offering its phones through a single exclusive network in the UK, say analysts.

And telcos offering the company's upcoming 3G Iphone will also be able to subsidise the handsets in a bid to boost sales. Reports in the London Times claim that the 3G phone could appear as early as next month, priced at around £100 ($196).

Although a big saving on the price paid by early Iphone adopters, the UK price tag is still considerably higher than on mainland Europe where the device is expected to be priced at around €99 ($154).

Apple's Steve Jobs is expected to debut the new phone during his keynote speech at the company’s Worldwide Developers’ Conference in San Francisco next week.

Cutting the price and ending exclusive deals with telcos will help Apple towards its target of selling ten million Iphones by the end of the year. But at the end of 2007, the exclusive Iphone operators for Britain, Germany and France had only sold 330,000 phones between them, against a European sales forecast of up to 600,000 units. X