iPhone 4S nabs access permit, may land in China by Xmas

China Unicom has received a network access permit for the iPhone 4S from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, says a report. That should mean the gadget is good to go.

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Edward Moyer is a senior editor at CNET and a many-year veteran of the writing and editing world. He enjoys taking sentences apart and putting them back together. He also likes making them from scratch. ¶ For nearly a quarter of a century, he's edited and written stories about various aspects of the technology world, from the US National Security Agency's controversial spying techniques to historic NASA space missions to 3D-printed works of fine art. Before that, he wrote about movies, musicians, artists and subcultures.

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Edward Moyer

Dec. 10, 2011 9:09 a.m. PT

Mobile-phone company China Unicom has received the go-ahead to start selling the iPhone 4S in China and may roll out the device as soon as Christmas, according to a report.

Blog M.I.C. Gadget says the company received a network access permit from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology earlier this week.

That should mean China Unicom and the iPhone 4S are good to go. A China Unicom sales executive said last month that the company had "already done all of our preparations, we're just waiting on the permit." M.I.C. said the company was planning a launch for "as early as Christmas, or probably New Year."

After the iPhone 4S debuted in Hong Kong in November, preorders sold out in less than 10 minutes. China already accounts for the second-highest profits for Apple.