In May 2010, AppleInsider ran a short article titled “Chinese iPhone gets Wi-Fi, Apple granted iPhone design patent“. Here’s the relevant excerpt:
An updated iPhone with support for the Chinese national standard for Wi-Fi has received regulatory approval in China, while in the U.S. Apple was awarded a patent for ownership of the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS design.
According to IDG News, last month Chinese regulators approved a new iPhone with 3G and WAPI, or WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure. WAPI is a natively created Chinese security protocol for wireless Internet access.
“China has promoted the protocol, along with other homegrown technologies like the 3G standard TD-SCDMA, as part of a vision to produce more of its own technology and have it adopted by international companies,” the report said. It also noted that the new iPhone, which is just the existing model with wireless Internet, could also support standard Wi-Fi.
In response to this article, “anakin1992″ posted his opinion on why the Chinese government might prefer their own version of WiFi security, plus a little background story:
The reason that the Chinese Gov. favors its own WiFi security over the others is because Chinese version of WiFi security is better, but was not able to get nods from IEEE standard committee. There was a big drama on this when IEEE 802.11 finalized its security suite. Chinese IEEE participants stormed out of meeting after they were upper handed by other IEEE members, though as matter of fact, the Chinese proposal is better. At least this was how they felt at the time. So it is natural for the Chinese to promote its own technology.
But what puzzled me most is why they don’t enforce it on all WiFi products but only on cell phone devices. A source from a telco told me that WiFi on laptop computers are made by individual computer makers from all over the world, but telco devices are controlled by the government, thus it is easier to be regulated.
Yes, grey market iphones are cheaper at the counter, but the cost to enjoy 3G service from China Unicom is much more expensive. Jailbreak works for techies, not normal users.
I am not sure why people keep thinking to use the iPhone as a secretive anti-government device. If any government wants to surveil my communications with the outside world, I don’t think the iPhone with a WiFi can somehow escape such miserable reality. Any traffic in or out of China go through government ports and all business, foreign or domestic, have to connect to local telco ports. Yes, you could encrypt the messages, but unless those are from diplomatic missions, any government would have the authority to ask for how to decode those messages, if they deem it necessary for their own national security, which we might or might not agree upon.