Spanish-owned mobile operator O2 has sealed a deal to offer to Apple’s popular iPhone in the U.K., the first of several expected announcements from European carriers.

Some reports said O2 agreed to hand over as much as 40 percent of revenues it receives from iPhone calls and services, much higher than the 20-30 percent that analysts had predicted. However, an O2 spokesman described the reports “as being way off of the mark.”

O2, owned by Spain’s Telefonica, will for an unspecified “multiyear period” be the exclusive operator to offer the iPhone in the UK following its launch on November 9 , the spokesperson explained.

The handset will be sold via the outlets of independent mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse and through Apple’s own stores giving it some 1,300 retail points throughout the U.K..

O2 success in clinching the iPhone deal was widely predicted. Orange is expected to be Apple’s partner in France and T-Mobile is believed to have reached an agreement for sales in Germany, although the two carriers have not made any announcements.

Apple boss Steve Jobs indicated at the announcement that he was traveling to another destination in Europe before heading home. He would not say where.

Something of a surprise however, was the decision by Apple to launch a non-3G version of the phone in Europe ahead of an upgraded 3G model late next year. The O2 device is the same as the 8Gb model launched June 29 and currently shipping exclusively via AT&T in the U.S.

It has been priced at £229 ($457) plus sales taxes and will be available on three tariff plans set at £35, £45 and £55 per month over a minimum 18 month contract. The iPhone’s price was recently reduced to $399 in the U.S. O2’s plans will include unlimited data (subject to a 200Mb fair use policy) and will also include use of The Cloud’s 7,500 public WiFi hotspots with seamless hand-over.

Given the fact that Apple decided to launch a non-3G model, of all the U.K. operators O2 was the right choice for Apple, said Ken Blakeslee, principal of U.K. based tech investment advisors Webmobility.

“From the early days of mobile data it has been trying hard to open up the mobile phone to non voice uses such as Internet access, blogging and social networking,” he added. “Up till now the devices have been a bottleneck to achieving this. This device opens up the bottleneck.”

Not all the commentary has been so positive, however.

“We think that this is simply inadequate and will frustrate a lot of users who take their iPhone to their parents’ house in, for example Cornwall, at Christmas and say 'look how great this is for web browsing',” said Martin Garner, director of wireless intelligence at London based information and communications technologies analyst, Ovum.

“Certainly the deal with The Cloud is good for users and will help in urban areas and in people’s houses, but it will not mean much in rural areas.”