No, you’re not reading an old post. In another report today first cited in the Spanish daily Negocios, then repeated by Thomson Financial (but not Reuters), and now slowly disseminating through the blogosphere, Apple really has inked a deal with Telefonica-owned O2 to distribute the phone in the U.K. market. The mobile operator will pay some GBP 178 million ($362 million) in the deal, will apparently give Apple a cut of the profits, and plans to bow to all of the branding demands that the venerable consumer electronics giant bestows on it. The report does not give details of what will happen in France and Germany, the other two markets where the iPhone is slated to launch in Europe later this year.

Last week, there were several Steve Jobs sightings in London, fueling speculation that he was in town for some dealmaking of the cellular kind. But of course he could have been in town for a number of reasons, including content talks with EMI, or a number of other companies, in connection with iTunes and/or AppleTV. The rumors seemed to all lean to a possible event today in Apple’s European flagship store in London in Regent Street. But we are currently here, and there’s nothing unusual for a Monday evening. And besides, one Apple worker told this writer that Apple only really makes announcements on Tuesdays. Tell me why Steve Jobs don’t like Mondays?