Rumor: China Telecom, Apple Reach iPhone 4S Agreement
Beijing Daily, 1/30/12
Yesterday, sources inside China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) revealed that China Telecom and Apple have reached an agreement to introduce a CDMA version of the iPhone 4S to the China market. China Telecom has already started preparing for the launch, with sales most likely to begin within Q1 2012.
Yesterday industry sources revealed that China Telecom had already set the initial contract packages, including plans for RMB 89, RMB 129, RMB 159, RMB 189, RMB 289, RMB 389, RMB 489, and RMB 589 per month, among other options. Current plans are to sell the iPhone4S under contract, and not "naked" (i.e. phones that are not locked to a specific operator). However, the contract packages have yet to be officially confirmed by China Telecom.
Editor's Note: Netease Tech recently reported that some provincial branches of China Telecom had issued an internal memo to inform marketing departments to start taking preorders from government and enterprise customers, who must provide such details as company or department name, personal name, and ID number. So far there does not appear to be any similar policy paving the way for pre-orders from individual users.
Keywords: corporate user China Telecom iPhone wireless Apple CDMA 0728.HK CHA handset smartphone package