“The Chinese government received an application from Apple today, seeking a Network Access License to sell the iPhone for officially-sanctioned use in the country. So says Wedge Partners, a Colorado-based stock research firm,” Peter Burrows reports for BusinessWeek.

“Maybe more surprising is that the application is for an iPhone that doesn’t include wifi connectivity,” Burrows reports. “This has been a sticking point in negotiations with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which wants the phone to only run on the cellular networks. ‘Apple was hellbent on having the iPhone be wifi-enabled,’ says Wedge analyst Matt Mathison. ‘The Chinese government has been just as adament that it not be.’”

Burrows reports, “Mathison believes the approved license will accelerate talks with China Unicom, one of the three big state-controlled carriers in China. As such, ‘we now expect it to come before the Spring Festival in [January] 2010.’”

Full article here.