In a break with its pattern of partnering with the largest provider in every international market it enters, Apple (AAPL) has cut an iPhone deal with Tokyo-based Softbank (SFT.F), Japan's No. 3 wireless provider with 18.77 million subscribers. The news came Wednesday in a Softbank press release that's even more terse than usual:

SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp. today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple® to bring the iPhone™ to Japan later this year. (link)

Meanwhile in Spain, Telefonica (TEF) seems to have got over whatever last-minute jitters caused it to pull Monday's press release (see here). On Wednesday the telecommunications giant announced once and for all that it has agreed to carry the iPhone in Spain through its Movistar subsidiary.

Telefonica is Spain's No. 1 carrier — by a long shot — with 23 million mobile subscribers, and it already carries the iPhone in the United Kingdom through its O2 subsidiary.

The Softbank deal is more of a surprise. Early betting had favored NTT DoCoMo (DCM), Japan’s predominant mobile phone carrier and one of the pioneers of 3G technology (see here). That door is not necessarily closed, however. "If there's still a possibility of releasing iPhone from DoCoMo, we would consider it," an NTT DoCoMo spokesman told The Wall Street Journal. "Though we cannot comment on whether we have specific negotiation plans with Apple," (link).

These two announcements bring the iPhone country count to 70, according to the list maintained by applinvestors.

What's going on with the iPhone on the Iberian peninsula?

Although it's the corporate home of Telefonica, S.A., (TEF) one of the world's largest telecommunications conglomerates (it owns, among other carriers, Britain's O2), Spain hadn't received official word of a signed deal with Apple (AAPL) until early this morning, when a press release and an iPhone pre-registration link appeared on the home page of Movistar, the local Telefonica subsidiary.

Then, a few hours later, the pre-registration page went away and the press link disappeared. According to one report, nearly 25,000 Spaniards had signed up for the iPhone before the site closed and reverted to a generic Movistar home page.

Hats off to Silicon Alley Insider for their continued coverage of the overseas iPhone market.

Last week, Henry Blodget plucked a pseudonymous post from a New York Times comment stream and re-published what may be the smartest analysis to date of what's driving the extraordinary demand for iPhones overseas, especially in emerging markets (see "Tantrum" here).

Today, Dan Frommer treats us to an informal survey of the going rate for those iPhones once they are unlocked and put up for sale. The results, grabbed from Craigslist or their local equivalents (Molotok, anyone?), are posted at right. For comparison, he notes, Apple (AAPL) sells the 8 GB iPhone for $399 in the U.S. and the 16 GB model for $499. (link)