“China Telecom may soon become the second Chinese mobile carrier to offer the iPhone,” Owen Fletcher reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“Both Apple and China Unicom, currently the country’s only carrier to offer the U.S. company’s smartphones, are scheduled to start selling the iPhone 4S in China on Friday, a move likely to further drive Apple’s growth in what has become a key market for the company,” Fletcher reports. “Analysts expect that the version of the iPhone 4S due this week won’t work on China Telecom’s network. Just like AT&T and Verizon Wireless in the U.S., China Unicom and China Telecom use different wireless technologies.”
Fletcher reports, “But an Apple-made mobile phone that does use the same technology as China Telecom’s network has been approved by the national telecom regulator’s China Radio Management agency, which certifies radio-signal-emitting devices for use in the country, according to an agency website. While the website only identifies the phone by a model number, A1387, it says the phone is compatible with ‘CDMA-2000,’ the third-generation mobile technology used by China Telecom. An employee reached by phone at the agency on Monday confirmed that the device had been approved.”
Read more in the full article here.
What?!? I thought China Telecom which uses CDMA2000 is the same as Verizon. And isn’t the iPhone 4S, a universal phone meaning that it has a combination chip that runs GSM and CDMA?
KC
I believe I’ve read the CDMA2000 is a home grown (Chinese) version of CDMA (big brother anybody?).
Are you sure you’re not thinking of China Mobile’s version of 3G called TD-SCDMA?
You’re probably right.
I like it! Give a boost to 2Q numbers.
China is going to be a major growth catalyst for Apple and iPhone this year. If iPhone 4S is going to be launched on China Mobile network, this is going to be VERY big.
http://www.app-gehts.de/