【英语中国】中国电信有意推出iPhone

After expressing potential interest in the iPad, mobile operator China Telecom is signaling that it is interested in offering a version of the iPhone one day as well.

China Telecom, like rival state-owned operators China Mobile and China Unicom, wants to offer attractive handsets to win over users to its 3G services, which mean faster data transfers and higher revenue per user for operators.

But current models of the iPhone in China would be incompatible with the CDMA technology used by China Telecom's network.

'If we can have an iPhone, that would be good, but we'll just wait and see' if Apple makes any progress toward offering a CDMA version of the iPhone, said an official at the company who declined to be named.

People familiar with the situation have said that Apple is working on a CDMA iPhone, but the company has not announced any plans to do so, and Carolyn Wu, a spokeswoman for Apple in Beijing, declined to comment.

China Telecom's interest in the iPhone still underscores its popularity in China, where analysts estimated buyers were already using at least one million iPhones from the 'gray market' before Apple officially launched the phone there late last year.

China Unicom is the only Chinese carrier offering the iPhone. But China Mobile has long said it is in talks with Apple to offer the iPhone and in March said it hoped Apple could add China's home-grown 3G technology to iPhones.

China Telecom Chief Executive Wang Xiaochu said in May the company was evaluating the market response to the iPad before holding any talks with the U.S. firm about offering the product in China.

Previously, Mr.Wang had said the company wasn't interested in offering the iPhone because of high costs and stiff competition to secure the rights to sell the device in China

在表示对iPad有着潜在的兴趣之后，移动运营商中国电信发出信号，表示对有朝一日能够提供iPhone也有兴趣。

Bloomberg News上海新开业的苹果专卖店与同为国有运营商的中国移动和中国联通这样的竞争对手一样，中国电信也希望提供有吸引力的手机，以便赢得用户使用其3G服务，那将意味着更快的数据传输和运营商能够在每位客户身上获得更高的收入。

不过，中国现有的iPhone机型与中国电信网络使用的CDMA技术不兼容。

中国电信一位不愿具名的管理人士说，假如我们能够提供iPhone，那很好，不过我们会拭目以待，看苹果公司(Apple)是否会在提供兼容CDMA技术的iPhone上取得任何进展。

据知情人士透露，苹果正在开发兼容CDMA技术的iPhone，不过该公司尚未公布任何相关计划。苹果驻北京发言人Carolyn Wu拒绝置评。

尽管如此，中国电信对iPhone的兴趣依然凸显了iPhone在中国的广受欢迎。分析人士估计，去年底苹果在中国正式推出iPhone之前，中国已经有至少100万人从水货市场上买了iPhone。

中国联通是iPhone在中国的独家运营商。不过，中国移动很早以前就说，正在与苹果就提供iPhone进行谈判，3月份还说，希望苹果可以把中国自主研发的3G技术用于iPhone上。

中国电信总经理王晓初5月份时说，该公司正在评估市场对iPad的反应，之后才会与苹果就在华提供iPad产品进行谈判。

在那之前，王晓初曾说，由于高成本和有关获得在华销售权上的激烈竞争，中国电信对提供iPhone不感兴趣。