US operator AT&T is in talks with Apple to extend its exclusive deal to carry the iPhone until 2011, reports the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The existing deal is believed to expire next year. Such a move would further AT&T’s efforts to focus on mobile technology as a core future revenue driver, rather than its fixed-line operation. The operator has around 77 million mobile customers and 30 million fixed-line customers. AT&T said it added 4.3 million iPhone subscribers in the second half of 2008, about 40 percent of whom were new to the operator. Chief executive Randall Stephenson told the WSJ that AT&T plans to invest heavily in mobile to “future proof” the business as new bandwidth-hogging devices come online. Mr Stephenson said two-thirds of the company’s capital outlays in the next five years will go to mobile network investments and acquisitions. Last month the company announced plans to invest between US$17 billion and US$18 billion this year across its operation, an approximate 11 percent to 16 percent cut on its 2008 capex budget.

Meanwhile, rumours of new iPhone devices continue to strengthen. A separate WSJ report claims that Apple CEO Steve Jobs – currently on medical leave until the end of June – continues to be involved in the development of future Apple projects, which are believed to include new iPhone models as well as a portable device that is smaller than Apple’s current laptop computers but bigger than the iPhone or iPod Touch. Elsewhere, analysts believe an Apple order for 100m NAND flash memory chips is further confirmation the company is intending to release a 32GB iPhone this summer. Reports suggest it is unlikely that Apple is using the chips for 16GB iPhones as the company appears to be offloading much of its remaining 16GB stock.