WiFi-enabled iPhone receives regulatory approval in China

By on Jul 13, 2010 at 6:13 AM
General July 13, 2010

apple-iphone-china-approval

Apple’s iPhone is one step closer to officially landing in China. According to China’s Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center, a WiFi-enabled version of the iPhone was finally approved for a network access license. The image accompanying the approval notice suggests that the older iPhone 3G or 3GS and not the iPhone 4 will be the first to officially launch in the world’s largest mobile communications market. Look for the official confirmation to come from either Apple or the expected carrier China Unicom in the very near future. Until then, there is still the very active grey market for wanna-be iPhone owners in China.

[Via WSJ]

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15 Comments

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  • http://www.stechato.com stechato

    I wonder if it will be possible to use FaceTime with iPhone owners in China? Something tells me this will be blocked…

    http://www.stechato.com/2010/07/is-apples-facetime-the-real-deal/

  • Sick

    Apple is digging it’s grave with all the faulty iPhones it is selling.

  • sirpaul

    With the iPhone 4s antenna issues, selling the 3GS vs the 4 is actually a bonus!

  • Head Honcho

    You guys are very slow. The 3GS has been out here in China for about a year already maybe longer. Officially out on China Unicom but without Wifi. It has done really poorly also because you must either buy the phone at abut $1000 USD or commit to a monthly phone and data plan. Monthly phone and data plans aren’t that popular here as most people pay as your go buying phone cards that you type in and credit your account.

    • badonkadonk

      Correct, this is a WAPI-enabled version of essentially the same phone.
      Though from what I understand you could have easily bought the WiFi enabled version from Hong Kong for years before they started selling it for Unicom.

    • Head Honcho

      Many people buy the Hong Kong version because it has wifi but it won’t have 3G. China has the 3G bands locked down. No other country is using them.

  • Sick

    Right now everyone is getting the customers wrath. Apple f up. Man up that’s all we want them to. All device is getting the heat.

  • Gag

    I’m not quite sure why Apple wouldn’t submit the iPhone 4 for regulatory approval in China instead of this clearly older product. Then again, with all the hassles of dealing with the Chinese government and the usual outrageous prices that Apple gets to charge overseas, no doubt in tandem with horrific tariffs and taxes, China has never been quite the right market for Apple to get into. Hundreds of millions of people have access to a compromised product, which doesn’t do much good and makes you look like a moron. Some markets, no matter how big, are not worth getting into. Besides, the Chinese import, counterfeit, and jailbreak just about anything they can get their hands on. Apple should just rely on the gray market for residual exposure because if they do anything more active than that, they will fail and get no cooperation for the protection of their IP in China.

  • Glenn

    Why does the post say WCDMA?

    • bkwmiata

      Could this possibly be the widely rumored CDMA version of the Iphone all the fans hoped was going to Verizon?

    • navi

      interesting, i noticed that as well……

    • Anthony

      wcdma isnt cdma

      W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), UMTS-FDD, UTRA-FDD, or IMT-2000 CDMA Direct Spread is an air interface standard found in 3G mobile telecommunications networks. It is the basis of Japan’s NTT DoCoMo’s FOMA service and the most-commonly used member of the UMTS family and sometimes used as a synonym for UMTS.[1] It utilizes the DS-CDMA channel access method and the FDD duplexing method to achieve higher speeds and support more users compared to most time division multiple access (TDMA) schemes used today.

      While not an evolutionary upgrade on the airside, it uses the same core network as the 2G GSM networks deployed worldwide, allowing dual-mode operation along with GSM/EDGE; a feat it shares with other members of the UMTS family.

  • Anthony

    china will most likely ban it if it has the same issue it does int hte states

  • Bada$$

    Theres no frer Google in China land!

  • http://alghienkad06.student.ipb.ac.id/ thea

    great nice info

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