China Telecom takes bite of Apple

China Telecom Corp Ltd, the country's smallest telecommunications provider by user numbers, will start selling Apple Inc's iPhone 4S on contract from Friday, ending the iPhone combo monopoly of China United Network Communications Ltd, which is also known as China Unicom.

The move will help the company complete its product portfolio - and it could intensity the third-generation network competition among the nation's three telecommunications operators, industry experts said.

China Telecom will offer black and white versions of the iPhone 4S in 16-gigabyte, 32GB and 64GB versions, some of which will be free under certain contracts, Liu Ping, the company's marketing manager, said at a launch ceremony in Shanghai.