Hugh Pickens writes "Business Week reports that the Chinese authority has recognized an form from Apple seeking a Network Access License to sell the iPhone for officially-sanctioned use in the country. However, the form is for an iPhone that does not include WiFi connectivity, a bond point in negotiations with the temple of commercial enterprise and propaganda Technology, which wants the phone to only run on the cellular networks. 'Apple was hellbent on having the iPhone be WiFi-enabled,' says analyst Matt Mathison. 'The Chinese presidency has been just as adamant that it not be.' For many years now, China convent feds* told cell phone consumers that WiFi would not be allowed on mobile phones for fear that consumers might be tempted to illegally load VoIP apps and make calls over the Net, undermining carriers' interests. However Glenn Fleishman says that China uses WAPI, a homegrown proprietary sphere to Wi-Fi that only a handful of Chinese manufacturers have access to, and that equipment sold in China must have WAPI support and chips made in China. Fleishman speculates that China's WAPI criterion contains backdoor technical knowledge to allow China to monitor any communications sent over 'secure' links."

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