Only China Unicom and Apple has signed a formal licensing agreement of selling iPhone 4, and only China Unicom has the import license from the Ministry of Commerce, so only China Unicom has authorized iPhone 4, the others are all nonlicet, deputy general manager of China Unicom Li Gang said in an interview with C114.
Since China Unicom began to sell Apple’s iPhone 4 at the end of September, instead of the single-channel only for China Unicom, chinese market recently appears many channels to sell iPhone 4, and others operators provide services like cutting a normal SIM card into MicroSIM card for iPhone 4, provide exclusive customer service and iPhone 4 packages for users.
"So far, China Unicom is the only operator with Apple's co-operation in the chinese mainland, also is the only authorized operator for selling iPhone 4." China Unicom’s 3G marketing director, deputy general manager Li Gang said on 22 November.
He did not mention who are the other operators, but firmly stressed that the sale of iPhone 4 need to comply with the law. Certainly Apple can sell iPhone 4 bare metal, but only China Unicom and China Unicom's authorized sales channels are legal in mainland China.
He cited three cases to illustrate this point: " First, any mobile handheld products need a network permit from MIIT, so as Apple; Second is that each batch of phones need a import license from Ministry of Commerce. After iPhone 4 imported, China Unicom has to charge 17% VAT per phone; Third, only China Unicom has signed a formal licensing agreement with Apple, in addition to Apple, only China Unicom and China Unicom's authorized channels can sell iPhone 4 ". ( By Nye Sha )