China Telecom, the country’s third-largest wireless carrier, is in talks with Apple over the CDMA iPhone. Reuters reports that Apple’s exclusivity deal with current iPhone carrier China Unicom expires this year, leaving the door open for Apple to add China Telecom as a second carrier in the region.
“We’re not denying that we’re in touch with iPhone (Apple), but I cannot comment on the progress,” said China Telecom Chairman Wang Xiaochu. Interestingly, a report from earlier this week indicated that Apple has also reached some sort of agreement with leading Chinese carrier China Mobile that will see Apple produce iPhone models capable of running on China Mobile’s TD-LTE 4G network; Apple has decided not to make an iPhone capable of running on China Mobile’s proprietary 3G network.
.