China Unicom CEO Chang Xiaobing today told reporters at the National People's Congress that his company is working with Apple to bring a Wi-Fi enabled iPhone to China, according to The Wall Street Journal.
China Unicom, which is state-owned, forced Apple to remove Wi-Fi from the iPhone before the device was released in China due to government regulations. Now the Chinese have retooled regulations prohibiting the use of Wi-Fi in the handset and say that should pave the way for a Wi-Fi enabled iPhone in the near future.
Chang went on to say that he hopes China Unicom, the exclusive iPhone carrier in China, can make the phone cheaper. The phone currently sells for $730 to $1,020, which is much higher than iPhone knockoffs available on the country's "gray market."