China telecom was in the news earlier this month for having gained the necessary approvals in order to launch the iPhone 4S in China. And today the Beijing based, China Telecom has issued a press release stating that they would be launching the iPhone 4S in the country as soon as the end of February or the start of March.
As per the release China Telecom would be launching a CDMA version of the iPhone 4S. Though there is no mention on the pricing of the device, it is expected to be similar to what other carriers charge for the iPhone 4S.
China Telecom is the largest carrier in China after China Mobile and China Unicom. It boasts of about 32.5 million 3G subscribers in China, whereas China Mobile has about 52.1 million 3G subscribers. Though, a launch with China Mobile seems to be distant dream for Apple at the moment due to certain differences between the two.
For now Apple has rejected to add the TD-CDMA standard version on the iPhone 4S and would not be available with China Mobile until this impasse is resolved, which does not seem to be happening any time soon if this new development is any indication.
Though for now customers in China can lay their hands on the iPhone 4S via either the China Telecom or the Unicom.