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Apple To Sell Wi-Fi-less iPhone In China

Posted by Soulskill on from the also-adding-special-tinfoil-bezel dept.

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."

1 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. At least the Chinese aren't a bunch of fatasses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    how about just not being a lazy lardass? course you can take diet pills or get your stomach stapled, that way you never have to get over your helpless "its too haaaarrrrdddd" loser attitude. is that the selling point of those things? how to lose weight without confronting the character flaws and loser tendencies that made you into a fatass in the first place. it's too much like cheating. really to hear these fatties talk you'd think that nothing they ever did could have possibly ever had anything to do whatsoever with their fatass lardass condition. their denial is the only thing more disgusting than their rolls of fat. i got news for you thunderthighs, less than one half of one percent of you fatasses have a thyroid disorder, all of the rest of you are lazy fucks with a million excuses.