China Telecom plans iPhone launch year-end
China Telecom Corp Ltd. has planned to offer its 106 million subscribers the Apple Inc iPhone by the end of 2011, sources claimed. The move would help China Telecom cement more high-end 3G users in a competitive market in which handset subsidies offered by carriers are squeezing margins. China Telecom operates the country's largest fixed-line network and is a relative newcomer to the mobile market.
China Telecom's shares, which have risen by about a fifth this year, extended earlier gains, rising as much as 5.5 percent to an intraday high of HK$4.95 and outperforming the Hang Seng Index's 1 percent gain. China has 896 million mobile phone users. Its three telecommunications operators are China Mobile Ltd, China Unicom and China Telecom. So far, China Unicom is the only operator to offer the iPhone after signing a three-year agreement with Apple in 2009. Its deal with Apple is not based on a revenue-sharing scheme, unlike some operators in other countries.
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