These are plainly designed to boost 3G services consumption and gain more market share. China Telecom’s 3G network has a coverage more than 98% in urban areas in Beijing. China Telecom’s CDMA2000 3G network rollout will proceed rapidly.
One question that arises is whether Apple will develop a CDMA2000 3G iPhone for China Telecom. If it did, it might gain a substanial part of the relatively affluent urban netizens that China Telecom is targeting through its new bundled data/call plans in Beijing and new eSurfing plans in Shanghai.
Judging by Apple’s past decisions, the answer should be "no". But predicting what Apple will do, even though it is a fascinating past-time, is rarely fruitful or accurate. The iPhone in our illustration is not a CDMA2000 3G iPhone for China Telecom. Not.