I suspect that it will be short lived.
China Unicom has announced that it will be the vendor for the iPhone in China. They purchased 5 million units for selling, before the network is open.
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www.marketwatch.com/stor ··· 09-08-31Fortunately, China Unicom is the 'smaller' company, and has only 141 million subscribers, vs 301 million in China Mobile
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www.cellular-news.com/st ··· 3029.php