The iPhone 6 is almost official, as China Telecom apparently jumped the gun and revealed the handset before Apple got to formally introduce it.

Apple is widely expected to take the wraps off its next-generation iPhone 6 in September, unveiling at least one large-screen model. The iPhone 6 has leaked extensively as of late and various rumors and reports have tried to paint a picture of what to expect from the smartphone, but it was all just speculation.

The latest leak, however, is different. While it doesn't count as an official unveiling because it doesn't come from Apple, it does come from Chinese carrier China Telecom, which makes it more credible than a simple rumor.

More specifically, China Telecom went ahead and announced the upcoming iPhone 6 on its own in a new post on Weibo, a Chinese social media site similar to Twitter. The carrier pulled the post shortly after, for obvious reasons, but nothing really goes away once it's been posted online. The folks over at Sina News made a screenshot for everyone to see.

China Telecom revealed that the upcoming iPhone will be available unlocked and will support a number of networks, including two types of LTE networks, WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, and CDMA1X. It's worth pointing out that China Telecom has never sold unlocked iPhones so far, so this would be a first for the carrier.

In addition to this information, China Telecom also posted some images of the smartphone and they look like official promotional material, showing the device in gold, silver, and black color options.

As previously mentioned, this is not an official iPhone 6 unveiling, but it's pretty close. Apple's carrier partners always have the scoop beforehand so they can prepare for the upcoming product, albeit they typically keep it to themselves.

Apple has a media event scheduled for Sept. 9, when it is expected to announce the iPhone 6. It remains unclear at this point whether the company will unveil both the 4.7- and the 5.5-inch models of the iPhone 6 at the event, as many reports claimed that the larger device will debut at a later time. We'll keep you up to date as soon as we learn more, but take everything with a grain of salt in the meantime.