December 23, 2013. China Mobile and Apple today formally announced a long-term agreement that would make Apple’s popular new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c available on China Mobile 4G networks across China.

The phones will be available for pre-registration orders beginning December 25, 2013 from the China Mobile website. Beginning on January 17, 2014, the phones will be available for purchase from Apple stores and China Mobile service centers.

Like Us on Facebook

The agreement ends six years of intense negotiations between the world’s largest telecommunications operator and the world’s most popular technology company. Prior to the partnership, due to incompatibility between the unique technology China Mobile used with its 3G networks and prior iPhone handsets, China Mobile subscribers were shut out from using iPhones, forcing many to switch to rival China Unicom which allows the use of unlocked iPhones on its networks.

According to Ken Hyers, senior analyst for wireless smartphone strategies at Strategy Analytics, the partnership is a win-win situation for both companies. The deal will give Apple access to China Mobile’s 760 million subscribers while allowing China Mobile to enjoy the popularity of the Apple brand to keep and grow its subscriber base.

The key element to clinching the partnership was the Chinese government granting of licenses to China Mobile and its competitors to offer 4G network services and China Mobile’s accelerated construction of a TD-LTE 4G network. In recent weeks, China has begun test 4G services in a few cities including Beijing, Ningbo and Wenzhou with plans to expand the service to most of the country by the end of 2014. China Mobile has used common standards for its 4G networks and so there is no longer an incompatibility between China Mobile’s networks and the iPhone 5s and 5c handset technology.

According to Hyers, in the first year of the partnership, Apple could sell 15 million to 20 million handsets and China Mobile can expect millions of its legacy 2G and 3G subscribers to migrate to the new, faster 4G phones and 4G date services.