China Unicom to finally roll out iPhone with Wi-fi

China Unicom, the only telecom operator offering Apple’s iPhone in the world’s largest mobile market, said last Friday it would start selling the smartphone with Wi-fi function this week.

The iPhone only officially went on sale in China in October – more than two years after its US debut – and was offered in a stripped down version without Wi-fi.

But from tomorrow, Unicom will offer customers an eight-gigabyte version of the iPhone 3GS model with wireless internet capability, Unicom said in a statement on its website.

“It will be offered in only a few provinces at first” as wider distribution will take time, a company official, who declined to be named, told AFP.

Analysts say the government had opposed phones equipped with the feature out of fear that state-owned telecoms firms would lose revenue due to the large number of free wireless hotspots in the country.

The iPhone with W-fi capability only got a network access licence in China in July.

The Wi-fi-equipped iPhone will sell for 4,999 yuan ($738) – the same price as the model without Wi-fi, according to the statement.