BEIJING, Aug. 13, 2009 (Xinhua News Agency) -- China Unicom (OOTC:CHUFF) (0762.HK; CHU.NYSE) Guangdong Branch made a statement Thursday saying that the report about China Unicom spending 10 billion yuan buying five million iPhones from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is untrue.

However a source with China Unicom told the China Securities Journal reporter that China Unicom and Apple have agreed on the major issues on introducing iPhone, and they are approaching to reach a final agreement.

Earlier reports said that the first batch of iPhones of China Unicom version would be put on the market in September in part of 3G business outlets of the telecom service operator, but China Unicom would not adopt the business model of sharing profits with Apple because the model is hard to be approved by Chinese regulator.

It is learned that in order to learn iPhone operation experiences, China Unicom has contacted with Taiwan-based Chunghwa Telecom (NYSE:CHT) on issues of 3G mobile phone roaming fee, international submarine cable and cross-Taiwan strait iPhone mobile phone added value service, and they signed a MOU on reducing international roaming fee. Edditem