China Telecom wing: iPhone 4S due as soon as late February
updated 11:35 pm EST, Mon January 30, 2012
China Telecom may have iPhone 4S in a month
China Telecom sub-label Beijing Telecom stated Tuesday local time that a China Telecom-native iPhone 4S was expected within about a month. It said the CDMA version would "likely" reach the network by late February or early March, China Daily said. Apple's device had already been given regulatory clearance for China Telecom's network and would face few barriers.
The carrier proper hadn't directly confirmed any plans.
The addition would help Apple address its underestimate of Chinese demand as well as help counter the rise of Android in the region. At 36.3 million users on its 3G network, it sits above existing carrier China Unicom and is considerably closer to leader China Mobile's 51.2 million. Local companies like Huawei have gone mostly unopposed on these networks and have contributed to Apple being fourth in China, behind Huawei, Samsung, and Nokia.
The last of the top three, China Mobile, is believed to be waiting on a TD-LTE version of the iPhone, where it would not only have a halo device for its network but better roaming than its limited TD-SCDMA network allows.
