China Telecom is selling the iPhone 4S at up to 2,000 yuan (US$317) cheaper after Apple released the iPhone 5 in the US last week while China Unicom has also cut prices, Shanghai Daily learned yesterday.

Starting from Wednesday, China Telecom will sell iPhone 4S without contracts ranging from 4,488 yuan to 4,888 yuan. The 64-gigabyte model, which supports the telco's CDMA network, will cost 4,888 yuan, down 2,000 yuan from the current level, it said on its website.

Last Friday, China Unicom cut the price of its non-contracted iPhone 4S by 500 to 700 yuan.

Both telcos are cutting the price of the iPhone 4S in a bid to clear inventory before the iPhone 5's release in the mainland, said a person familiar with both firms. The two telcos - Apple's official partners for the iPhone in the Chinese mainland - expect to introduce the iPhone 5, which uses a nano-SIM card, in the domestic market by the end of this year.

The iPhone 5 has a 4-inch screen, up from the 3.5-inch screen found on the iPhone 4 and 4S, and supports the faster 4G LTE wireless network.