Users concerned that Verizon Wireless' iPhone 4 wouldn't be usable with overseas carriers may have a 'pleasant surprise' coming.
Employees of the Guangdong branch of China Telecom teased users this week with a post on its microblog saying they were working on a way to crack Verizon Wireless' CDMA iPhone, suggesting users might be able to use the device on China Telecom's network.
A post signed the 'Apple Lab Team' on the Sina Weibo accountidentified as belonging to the Guangdong branch of China Telecom said Tuesday the 'CDMA iPhone 4 has made its first call in China' without a hitch. Preceding posts included a photo of a Verizon Wireless iPhone beside a tag labeled China Telecom Guangdong, then a photo of the device displaying the home screen for Cydia, a software application that allows users to find applications and software packages for jailbrokenApple devices.
'Guangdong Telecom's first iPhone 4 has been successfully jailbroken,' one post said. The 'Window's version of Greenpois0n didn't work,' it said, referring to software used to hack Apple's operating systems. 'A switch to the Mac version of Greenpois0n was a success.'
Jailbroken iPhones have been common for a long time in China, where Apple was slowto officially launch the device for the first time, and where official versions are difficult to come by because of supply issuesand buying restrictions. Users can bring locked iPhones home from overseas and have them jailbroken and unlocked for use with the carrier of their choice, or purchase a jailbroken iPhone from a local seller.
While it's unusual for a telecommunications carrier itself to openly encourage such behavior, local branches have been known to take matters into their own hands.
While China Telecom operates a CDMA network, China's two largest carriers China Mobile and China Unicom, both operate GSM networks that are compatible with iPhone models released before the most recent Verizon Wireless iPhone 4, meaning only the latter two could provide voice services to iPhone users. But China Unicom was the only one of the three that could provide higher-speed 3G data services to iPhone users because it operates a compatible WCDMA 3G network. China Mobile's 3G network used a homegrown Chinese standard called TD-SCDMA, and China Telecom uses CDMA-2000 technology.
As a result, China Unicom has lured some customers away from its rivals and, in retaliation, the Beijing branch of China Mobile launched a website last November providing instructions for users on how to activate the devices with China Mobile's service instead, though without 3G service, and began providing a special serviceto help users cut their SIM cards to fit the iPhone 4's smaller microSIM card slot.
A China Telecom official said the test call written about on the microblog was done by individuals within the company and did not represent an official company action. A company spokesman declined to comment on whether China Telecom is in talks with Apple to officially release a CDMA version of the iPhone in China, but the company has said in the pastthat it would be interested in carrying the device if a compatible version were to be made available.
Meanwhile, China Telecom was left out of the mix until recently because all iPhones released prior to the Verizon Wireless iPhone 4 could not be used on its CDMA network. And even if the CDMA iPhone were to be officially launched in China, the world's largest mobile market by subscribers, Apple would likely need to reengineer it to include a SIM card slot and make other changes in accordance with Chinese regulations, the way it has had to reengineer previous models.
It's unclear if the China Telecom employees are using a Verizon Wireless iPhone with a Chinese phone number, because while China Telecom devices use the same network technology as Verizon Wireless, devices used on its network typically require a SIM card while most Verizon Wireless devices do not. If they are using a China Telecom phone number, the 'Apple Lab Team' has not revealed a way for regular users to follow suit.
An article on Sina's Web portal said the current test is being done only by China Telecom's Guangdong branch, but 'insiders' say they are waiting for the company to develop a unified plan of. In the meantime, the employees' microblog says to stay tuned for more 'pleasant surprises.'
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