While its been known for some time now that AT&T would supply 3G coverage in the US and that NTT DoCoMo would provide it in Japan, Sony has been quiet on details for Europe and Australia. But today Sony has announced that the PlayStation Vita 3G version will ship with a Vodafone SIM and provide 3G connectivity via the Vodafone 3G network. Vodafone has also announced that it will be selling the Vita through its retail stores and online.
While this news may not be popular with ex or current Vodafone users, because of the networks infamous lack of coverage, users that do connect to the carrier will get a free download of Wipeout 2048 from the PlayStation Network. This 3G connectivity deal will also exist in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France (using Vodafone’s partner SFR), New Zealand and The Netherlands. It is unknown whether the device will be locked to Vodafone, but Sony has called the carrier its “preferred partner”, so here’s hoping they stick with that and let people pop in a SIM for a their own preferred partner.
The 3G PlayStation Vita will be available for $449.95 while the Wi-Fi version will be $349.95 and we’ll be sure to review it when it comes out on the 22nd of February 2012.