China Unicom Reveals Contract Plans for iPhone 4S, ‘Free’ Comes at a Price

China Unicom (NYSE:CHU; HKG:0762), the country’s second-largest mobile telco, is finally ready to sell the iPhone 4S – next Friday, the 13th – and has revealed its contract plans. Chinese consumers who sign a two-year contract can get a free iPhone 4S 16GB model if they pay up for a minimum of 386 RMB (US$61) per month of 3G data, SMS, and calls.

The cheapest monthly plan is for a mere 66 RMB ($10) per month, but that necessitates a much higher deposit for every model. It’s pretty much the same contract system as for previous iPhone models that China Unicom has carried. But with Chinese consumers being used to the less restrictive method of buying an unlocked phone (if it’s a grey-import, then it comes with no sales tax) and then running it on their preferred mobile network (even if that means using 2G), there’s not too much in Unicom’s data packages to make the contract an alluring choice for most people.

Bloomberg Businessweek notes (read it here) that the ‘free’ 4S deal (for 16 and 32GB models, but not the 64-gig one) starts at just 286 RMB per month so long as a three-year user contract is signed. [UPDATED 1/6, 1:30pm BST – Added info for 3-year contracts].

China Unicom currently has 36.5 million 3G subscribers and remains Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) sole official partner in the country.

Readers in Asia might like to note that Apple’s online store is currently running a one-day sales promo for Chinese new year in some countries, although discounts are fairly small – no more than 8 percent off, it seems) – and don’t include any iPhone models. Here’s Apple’s Singapore online store.

Plus, here’s a useful table of one- and two-year contract plans for the iPhone in China that was posted on QQ Tech and which are easy to figure out even if you can’t read Chinese: