Any T-mobile USA customers out there who were getting excited about the the prospects of gaining access to the iPhone, hold on.

It doesn't look like it will happen next year.

Maybe by 2010.

AT&T executives negotiating with Steve Jobs and his iPhone team at Apple agreed to a steeper subsidy plan that made the new iPhone 3G devices far cheaper to consumers than the original iPhone.

When the new prices were announced AT&T said, according to this CNET article, that "the arrangement will put pressure on the company's profit margins and dilute earnings for the next year and a half."

New details now have emerged about what AT&T demanded in return.

"Tucked away amid discussions of AT&T's pleased reaction to the iPhone's results, USA Today surprisingly mentions that the American cellular service provider didn't simply agree to switch from a monthly revenue sharing model to a heavily subsidized approach without first setting some conditions," according to this Apple Insider account.

"As struck before the original iPhone's launch, Apple's initial agreement for iPhone exclusivity had AT&T serve as the only US network for iPhones until 2009, or roughly two years after customers' contracts began. But to greenlight the subsidy -- which is described as "painful" and damaging in the short term -- AT&T allegedly insisted on an extension of the deal until 2010, when T-Mobile and other carriers could start offering the device."

The new iPhones work with a technology that only is compatible with networks such as those of AT&T and T-Mobile in the United States. Sprint and Verizon customers are out of luck now and after 2010 if they want to stick with their current carrier and get an iPhone.

USA Today's Leslie Cauley last week declared AT&T's Randall Stephenson to be the genius behind the $199 price of the "smoking-hot 3G Apple iPhone."

"On the plus side for consumers, the iPhone is now extremely affordable. At $199, the 3G iPhone costs about the same as a high-end cellphone. AT&T says it plans to offer an unsubsidized iPhone later. Cost: $599 to $699, depending on memory, putting it well beyond the reach of average wireless users," she wrote.

It's a huge gamble, and one, Cauley said, that will take time before we know whether it pays off.

She said, however, all the iPhone hullabaloo does appear to have a halo casting a warmer glow among consumers for smart phones and the mobile Web in general.

"AT&T's role in the iPhone's success could cement its place as the premier cellphone carrier in the USA. It's already helped raise AT&T's cool factor, a big deal among tweens, teens and other Web-centric customers. That's no small feat considering the brand's age — more than 120 years and counting."

Sprint didn't have its iPhone-competing Samsung Instinct on the market for much of the second quarter. But it will be interesting to get the latest updates about how that device is doing when Sprint issues its financial report later this week.