China Telecom chairman and chief executive Wang Xiaochu said his company will procure 60 million units of consumer-premise telecom equipment from Taiwan this year, a 33% increase from last year’s 45 million units.
China Telecom is currently the No.1 fixed-line and No. 3 mobile telecom carrier in mainland China, offering fixed-line service to 175 million subscribers and mobile service to 90.52 million subscribers throughout the mainland.
Wang said major products on the company’s procurement list include mobile phones and tablet PCs.
People familiar with the cooperation deals pointed out that China Mobile has to rely on Taiwan’s manufacturers to help it achieve the goal of increasing its CDMA mobile subscribers to over 100 million by the end of this year by supplying CDMA-2000 mobile phones, chips and LAN equipment.
Cens.com reported Wang as saying the mainland’s telecom market is very large and his company is pushing to promote 3.5G service in the mainland.