Sina.com reports today (Oct 9, 2009) that WiFi will not be enabled on the first China Unicom iPhone (model A1324) due to launch at the end of the month. Sina.com (via JLM Pacific Epoch) quotes Vsens (China Unicom’s handset distribution entity) General Manager Yu Yingtao; “The company [China Unicom] is still negotiating with Apple to introduce iPhones with WiFi as well as WAPI.”
Is the hold up, as implied, Apple’s reluctance to include China’s wireless LAN application and privacy infrastructure (WAPI) standard via a dual WAPI/WiFi chipset?* …. or is this simply China’s Ministry of Industry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) holding up approval of a new model iPhone that will include the WAPI/WiFi stack?*
Prior rumors in China’s tech press speculated that the second model iPhone for China Unicom (model A1325 based on iPhone 3GS) might include a dual WAPI/WiFi chipset.* This model was rumored to have been submitted for testing/approval in July 2009. Thus far there have been no reports about model A1325 receiving its network access license (NAL). Without the NAL, model A1325 cannot go on sale in China. Perhaps model A1325 will receive its NAL early next year (2010)? Yet it seems doubtful that the NAL for model A1325 will be delayed beyond October as there has already been plenty of China Unicom iPhone marketing materials distributed promoting both the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3Gs (A1324 and A1325 respectively). Any delay in launching the iPhone 3GS might take some stream out of the initial iPhone sales. It is therefore more likely that model A1325 will receive its NAL before the end of the month (it may have already been issued but not announced).
It will be interesting to learn whether this model includes a WAPI/WiFi chipset.* 
If you take Vsens GM Yu Yingtao at his word, then this model will not have the WAPI/WiFi chipset … or if it does, the WiFi functionality will be disabled at a software level (perhaps to be reactivated if approved?).
One thing seems clear, China Unicom senior executives (from CEO Chang Xiaobing on down) have been lobbying the MIIT to approve WiFi on iPhone. It also appears that the only open path to WiFi on mobile phones in China is to go the route of a dual WAPI/WiFi chipset.*
Why the delay on approving WAPI/WiFi on iPhone? Could be for any (or none) of the following reasons:
- Rather than give the WAPI/WiFi* ready iPhone a rapid approval (i.e. less than 3 months), the MIIT is doing the bidding of China Mobile and China Telecom who are rushing their iPhone competitors to market (OPhones and CPhones respectively)?
- China Telecommunications Technology Labs (CTTL) testing and MIIT review/approval can take 3 to 6 months to complete. If model A1325 was submitted (as rumored) at the end of July, a 6 month turnaround would put approval (NAL issuance) out to end of January 2010. Yet, as noted above, I am more inclined to believe A1325 will be approved before October.
- Apple has “issues” (technical and/or financial) over inclusion of WAPI in iPhone? WAPI royalties must be paid and Apple could be negotiating with China Unicom on financial terms.
- Apple and China Unicom are working on a third, yet to be announced, iPhone model for China that will include WAPI/WiFi?
- Apple and China Unicom are holding out hope that MIIT will approve an iPhone with WiFi alone (sans WAPI)? This would require a further liberalization of China’s mobile phone WiFi policy (i.e. currently no WiFi is allowed on authorized mobile handsets unless the phone includes China’s WAPI).
*What is WAPI?: Wireless LAN application and privacy infrastructure a.k.a. “WAPI” is China’s homegrown version of WiFi. China has staked much national pride in the development of WAPI and after a long fought battle WAPI very recently (June 2009) received international standards board (ISO) accreditation. WAPI and WiFi can be layered together without hampering the functionality of either protocol. China would prefer that mobile phones use WAPI exclusively. Yet WiFi is very popular in China and the prior ban of WiFi on handsets only added rocket fuel to the grey-market importation of WiFi-enabled handsets. In order to stem the unauthorized sale of WiFi-ready phones, in May 2009, China authorized the combination of WAPI/WiFi on mobile phones, but not WiFi on its own.
The WAPI/WiFi stack is a King Solomon’s compromise – mobile users get a WiFi connection (many more WiFi hotspots in China vs WAPI) and China gets their WAPI royalties and can declare victory. China’s telecom authorities argue that WAPI provides superior encryption security. But critics say there is a “backdoor” (no proof but probable) in a WAPI algorithm that enables China’s Great Firewall (GFW) to snoop on users. File under “gee, what a surprise.”
More background on WiFi/WAPI:
