First, Palm Infocenter and Engadget Mobile are reporting on an article on the Spanish-language site Expansion (Google Translation here)
that Telefonica may have landed a big fish in an exclusive deal to sell
the Palm Pre to its customers in Spain and the UK (under the O2 brand)
as well as in Latin America (where it's known as Movistar). Bully for
Telefonica if this is true, as it's a coup against its main nemesis
Vodafone, who just launched the HTC Magic Android phone at MWC.
More interesting than that to those of us in North America is that,
as EnMo points out, most of Latin America gets their 3G on via the
850/1900 MHz bands. Those would be the same bands that folks in the US
and Canada also use for their high speed cellular data needs. Very
interesting. Could be disastrous for Sprint if unlocked Pres work on AT&T's 3G network in the States and become readily available, though personally I think the idea of an awesome device on a fast, cheap network has some appeal. If Pre winds up being awesome, that is.
No word from Palm, Telefonica, or Vodafone, though I can say that a few of my Twitter followers are already really excited.
Also, the Google translation of the Expansion article (linked to above) calls Pre the, 'AntiiPhone." Love that. AntiiPhone.
