China Mobile could deactivate 3G / WiFi on iPhone 3G launch

Currently, over 400,000 unlocked iPhones are roaming around China. Now that China Mobile is about to officially launch Apple's latest handset in the world's most populous country, we can only imagine that figure going up. In a bizarre twist of trying to keep a homegrown 3G standard (TD-SCDMA) alive, the carrier has announced that it is intending to launch the mobile with WiFi and 3G disabled -- a move that would make it less appealing to those who may be considering buying one, unlocking it and using it on the expected W-CDMA network from China Telecom. Uncool, China Mobile. Very uncool.

[Via mocoNews]

[fernando Posted Sep 26th 2008 11:41AM]

China is an uncool place in general.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 26th 2008 12:26PM]

Have you actually been there Fernando?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 27th 2008 11:09AM]

I have. In fact, I'm living here now. "Uncool" is overboard, but some things do get to you after a while (for example, China Mobile's crap network- I had about a 10% call success rate on them except during international roaming so I am using China Unicom instead).

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 26th 2008 1:40PM]

Jeeze, talk about rendering the iphone useless.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 27th 2008 11:10AM]

I'll say- If they're really trying this they can expect a mass exodus of subscribers. Not to mention the many people with unlocked Japanese phones and Nokias who will also be moving to Unicom when their WCDMA comes out.