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Apple To Sell Wi-Fi-less iPhone In China
Hugh Pickens writes "Business Week reports that the Chinese government has received an application from Apple seeking a Network Access License to sell the iPhone for officially-sanctioned use in the country. However, the application is for an iPhone that does not include Wi-Fi connectivity, a sticking point in negotiations with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which wants the phone to only run on the cellular networks. 'Apple was hellbent on having the iPhone be Wi-Fi-enabled,' says analyst Matt Mathison. 'The Chinese government has been just as adamant that it not be.' For many years now, China ministry officials told wireless consumers that Wi-Fi would not be allowed on mobile phones for fear that consumers might be tempted to illegally load VoIP apps and make calls over the Net, undermining carriers' interests. However Glenn Fleishman says that China uses WAPI, a homegrown proprietary extension to Wi-Fi that only a handful of Chinese manufacturers have access to, and that equipment sold in China must have WAPI support and chips made in China. Fleishman speculates that China's WAPI standard contains backdoor technology to allow China to monitor any communications sent over 'secure' links."
So you have a society that:
1. sells movies all over the place before they even hit the theaters,
2. sells pirated software from major companies all over the place,
3. hacks basically anything and everything just for fun,
4. probably has a nationwide pringles-can wifi darknet,
and you think you can "disable" wifi on a phone there? Yeah, good luck with that. When you're done with that, maybe you can hold back the ocean with a broom.
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If the government's fear is about VoIP, why don't they just put equipment in place to block the protocol? Then again, if you think about it, it is less about VoIP and probably more of paying less to the state owned telecoms company. Its amazing, just when you think you know how totalitarian China is, you read something that makes you realise it is just a bit more.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Go out in the street, stand in front of your local courthouse, and chant "The FCC is killing babies."
You should really go try this first in the US and see how far you get.
What is China doing here is taken straight from the Evil empire's best practices manual.
Microsoft?
Go out in the street, stand in front of your local courthouse, and chant "The FCC is killing babies."
You should really go try this first in the US and see how far you get.
Okay, you try it in China while I try it in the USA. Ready? 1 2 3 GO!
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Speculates?!? Geez, its china, what would you expect?
---- Booth was a patriot ----