China Mobile iPhone deal by Q3?

Pretty much everyone who watches Apple and/or China Mobile expects the world’s most valuable company and the biggest mobile operator on the planet to stirke an iPhone deal some time this year.

Each for its own reasons needs the other more than ever, while the convergence of 4G standards means the elimination of the TD-SCDMA barrier.

This story in the respected Southern Metro Daily newspaper (Ch)  thus isn’t news, and it isn't definititive, but confirms that China Mobile is thinking along the same lines.

A China Mobile source says the company believes that with Qualcomm’s new convergence chipsets, Apple will no longer have to make standalone phones for Mobile’s standalone 3G network, enabling the pair to work together.

At the earliest, that will happen in the third quarter when the sixth generation iPhone is likely to be released. Qualcomm’s chipset offers five modes - TDD FDD LTE, W-CDMA and TS-SCDMA, and GSM/GPRS – in ten spectrum bands.

China Mobile has built out a trial TD-LTE network in 13 cities and will expand that to more than 100 cities this year. It has begun commercial trials in Hangzhou and Shenzhen. 4G licences have not been issued, but reportedly China Mobile will be the first to obtain one (Ch)  in October.

China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA network doesn’t allow roaming and offers a limited handset choice, causing it steadily lose ground to its rivals in 3G, where it accounts for just 41% of customers. Both its rivals, China Unicom and China Telecom, offer the iPhone.

If Apple and China Mobile do reach a deal, the signs are good. In Guangdong, China’s richest province, China Mobile already has almost as many iPhone users plugged into its 2G network as China Unicom has on its 3G network.