Apple’s and AT&T’s original iPhone deal confirmed to run through 2012; Is it still in effect?

“An ongoing California class-action lawsuit filed in 2007 claims that Apple and AT&T illegally exerted a monopoly over iPhone service by telling customers the iPhone’s required service contract was two years long when the Apple / AT&T exclusivity deal was actually for five years — thus requiring buyers to re-up with AT&T for three years (and not, say, T-Mobile) if they wanted to keep using the iPhone,” Nilay Patel reports for Engadget.

“Obviously Apple had to respond to these allegations, and in addition to arguing that no one was ever promised an unlocked iPhone after two years, the company’s lawyers repeatedly confirm the existence of the five-year agreement while noting it was publicly reported in USA Today,” Patel reports. “It’s extremely black and white…”

Patel reports, “Now, this all went down in October of 2008, and while it’s sort of amazing we hadn’t seen it earlier, the real question is whether or not the exclusivity deal is still on the books. Contracts can be canceled, amended, and breached in many ways, and AT&T’s spotty recent service history plus the explosion of the iPhone and the mobile market in general have given Apple any number of reasons to revisit the deal.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Scarboro” for the heads up.]