Apple adds WAPI Wi-Fi to China iPhone

“Apple appears to have tweaked its iPhone to support a Chinese security protocol for wireless networks, as companies increasingly adopt Chinese government-backed technologies to break into the country’s huge market,” Owen Fletcher reports for PCWorld.

“The move suggests Apple may soon launch a new version of the iPhone in China with Wi-Fi, a feature that regulations previously barred,” Fletcher reports. “Chinese regulators last month approved the frequency ranges used by a new Apple mobile phone with 3G and wireless LAN support, the Web site of China’s State Radio Monitoring Center shows. The device appears to be an iPhone and uses GSM and the 3G standard WCDMA, just like iPhones currently offered in China by local carrier China Unicom.”

Fletcher reports, “Apple removed Wi-Fi on the iPhones now sold in China because regulators there began approving mobile phones with WLAN support only last year — and only if they supported a homegrown Chinese security protocol called WAPI (WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure).”

Full article here.