Carphone Warehouse has abandoned hope of an exclusive tie-up with Apple’s iPhone, even as it announces an aggressive push for new broadband internet subscribers.

Charles Dunstone, the company’s co-founder, conceded yesterday that Apple is likely to strike a partnership with a mobile network operator, making it unlikely that the store will be a sole distributor.

The admission came as Carphone laid out new targets for its TalkTalk broadband business, aiming to expand its customer base to 3.5 million over the next three years.

Carphone Warehouse revolutionised the broadband market when it launched a “free” service last summer, but a stream of customer complaints forced the company, now Britain’s third-biggest telecoms group, to plough money into employing customer services staff.

Such costs are, in part, to blame for a hit to full-year earnings in the year to March 2008, which will be down to between £220 million and £230 million, from an expected £250 million.

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