CRI听力: China Telecom Carriers Scramle for 3G Market

Anchor: The battle for the world's largest market for third-generation mobile phone service is stepping up, seemingly by the day, as two of China's three biggest telecom carriers have just announced plans to cut service prices substantially.

Damin has more.

From October 1st, all subscribers to China Unicom's 3G service will no longer pay roaming charges.

The telecom carrier also announced three new and cheap service packages, starting at 66 yuan per month, on Monday.

The price cuts come just a few days after China Telecom, the country's biggest telecom provider, said it would scrap charges for all incoming calls to 3G subscribers.(WWW.hxen.net)

China's telecom service market is dominated by three carriers - China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom – and all three are building infrastructure for their own 3G networks.

China Mobile says it is also adjusting its pricing policy but has not offered a timetable.

Aside from relatively high fees, the high prices of 3G-based handsets are also stopping some people from embracing a new digital life.

To solve that problem, telecom carriers are pushing the prices of such phones lower.

China Telecom has sourced some 40 million 3G-based mobile handsets and plans to price them competitively.

He Yuzi is a marketing manager with China Telecom Beijing.

"After the October 1st National Day holiday, we'll start selling cheap 3G-capable handsets starting at around 1,000 yuan, or some 150 US dollars."

China Unicom has made similar moves, saying some of its cheaper customized models will retail at around 700 yuan, that is, a little over 100 US dollars.

Of course, providers are eyeing different customer groups, and both China Unicom and China Telecom are targeting wealthier cell phone users and gadget geeks.

China Unicom plans to start selling Apple's iPhones on the mainland next month, at around 5, 000 yuan, or more than 700 US dollars, apiece.

China Telecom has said it is in contact with Canadian firm RIM, the maker of Blackberry phones, on a possible deal to bring the email forwarding tool to China.

He Zhiqiang is marketing director for China Telecom.

"Blackberry is just one option. We are also looking to bring other major international cell phone manufacturers to our negotiation table, such as Motorola."

China Mobile, on the other hand, has developed its own smartphone operating system called "Ophone," and is trying to sell the system to as many cell phone manufacturers as possible.

China has more than 1 billion mobile phone users and more than 150 million mobile internet users up for grabs, but all three contenders can expect a bloody battle for shares of this huge market.

Da Min, CRI news.