Apple's latest version of its smartphone, the  iPhone 3GS, which sold over a million units in the first three days of its launch in June 2009, is set to make a debut soon in India through local cellular operators (See: Mac, iPhone sales drive Apple's $1.23-billion Q3 profits).

As the Indian government gears up to auction the high speed 3G spectrum to cellular companies in the coming weeks, cellular operators are vying to bundle the iPhone 3GS as part of a packaged scheme to their customers.

Bharti Airtel, the largest cellular service provider in India said yesterday that it had reached an agreement with Apple to sell its iPhone 3GS in India.

Vodafone Essar, Reliance Communications and Aircel are reported to be interested in tying up with Apple to sell the iPhone 3GS as a package to their customers.

With the 3G spectrum auction and announcement of the winners expected to take approximately two months, cellular operators will be able to offer the 3G services by September.

Currently, only state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam offer the 3G services since both companies were given the allotment on a preferential basis.

The locked iPhone 3GS will be available to Indian users through a service contract from cellular operators.

Cellular operators will provide the iPhone 3GS locked on to its network under a package and will not work on any competitor's network.

In the US and the UK, cellular operators subsidise the handset to their customers, since they recover the money through a tied-up 1 or 2 year service agreement with the user.

Since the tie ups are still in an exploratory stage, there is no indication of the iPhone 3GS pricing in India.

Currently, the 16GB version of the iPhone 3GS is priced at around Rs33,000 and the 32 GB version at Rs42,000.

But an unlocked version of the 16GB version iPhone 3GS is available in the grey market for approximately Rs28,000 and at 37,000 for the 32 GB version.

Since all the applications of the iPhone's are available only through its iTune store, the cellular operators will have to find a way for customers to download these applications by paying in Indian rupees.

The Cupertino, California -based Apple had unveiled the new high speed Phone 3GS in June 2009 with more hardware and software upgrades compared to the iPhone 3G. (See: Apple unveils the high speed iPhone3GS)

The 3G S is the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet, packed with incredible new features including improved speed and performance, up to twice as fast as iPhone 3G with longer battery life, a high-quality 3 megapixel autofocus camera, easy to use video recording and hands free voice control.