China Telecom may introduce subsidy policy in the fourth quarter or the introduction of iPhone 5

Telecommunication alliance Apple once again spread the news. It is widely reported in the industry that China Telecom will become the second domestic company to sell iPhone after China Unicom. The related subsidy policy is being sorted out and is expected to be released in the third quarter. The iPhone will be officially introduced in the fourth quarter. Close to China Telecom News said that the company maintains a competitive advantage and hopes to directly introduce the C version of the iPhone 5.

An executive from Swiss Telecom revealed that the iPhone 5 will be on September 5, but it is still only in the United States. Countries outside the United States need to wait another month. The executive said that Apple has negotiated with the main operators how to sell iPhone 5 details. According to legend, the new iPhone will be equipped with an A5 processor, a borderless design, and higher pixel and larger memory.

China Telecom is already the world’s largest CDMA network operator. Industry analysts pointed out that “China Telecom’s high-end customers are between 13 million and 15 million. Assuming they are all replaced by iPhones, the potential revenue value of these contracted customers is as high as 8 billion to 9 billion US dollars.” It is reported that telecommunications and Apple have made progress in negotiations and are willing to make concessions on technical and sales issues. However, on key issues, including buying iPhones in separate accounts or at higher prices, the two parties have yet to reach a consensus.

Subsidy policy is still a critical issue facing telecommunications. Sources said that in order to pave the way for the introduction of the C version of the iPhone 5, the telecommunications industry is currently sorting out the subsidy policy for the third quarter. At the same time, telecommunications will reduce terminal subsidies in the fourth quarter of this year.

The criterion for negotiations between Apple and operators is to enjoy the operator's highest subsidy policy in the country. Analysts believe that if China Telecom’s terminal subsidies are set too high, they will face the risk of losing money; if they are too low, they will lose their attractiveness to consumers, so the final level of subsidies may be similar to China Unicom. Take the most popular 16G iPhone 4 as an example, after the user selects a monthly package of 286 yuan, they can purchase a mobile phone of 5880 yuan for 0 yuan. Calculated, China Unicom provides users with up to 86% of subsidies. The China Unicom 2010 financial report shows that the losses caused by 3G terminal subsidies reached as high as 3.17 billion yuan, and the loss in the first quarter of this year still reached 1.9 billion yuan.