China Telecom officially launched its eSurfing mobile services on Thursday in Shanghai which now has three mobile carriers for the first time.

As a result of the national telecommunications industry reorganization, China Telecom acquired the mobile business from China Unicom to make the market more transparent and fair.

The eSurfing service, with its 189 prefix number, integrates China Telecom's other fixed-line businesses, such as Wi-Fi and broadband. It allows users to access packaged services through one unified account, according to Shanghai Telecom, China Telecom's Shanghai branch.

LG, Samsung and Dopod's eSurfing phones went on display yesterday.

As a newcomer to Shanghai's mobile market, Shanghai Telecom is expected to provide users services based on its Wi-Fi and CDMA networks to compete with local rivals Shanghai Mobile and Shanghai Unicom. But the carrier will not use an aggressive pricing strategy to grab market share, according to Shanghai Telecom. By the end of this year, China Telecom will establish 25,000 Wi-Fi hot spots nationwide and about 3,000 of these spots are going to be in Shanghai.

Based on wireless broadband networks, users will be able to access the Internet at speeds similar to home broadband services.

Before the launch yesterday about 20,000 people had booked 189 numbers.

By the end of 2007, Shanghai Telecom's market share of the local telecommunications revenue was 43.6 percent, ahead of Shanghai Mobile's 40.5 percent and Shanghai Unicom's 9.9 percent, according to Shanghai Telecom.

"It takes time for Shanghai Telecom to catch up with rivals like Shanghai Mobile as it needs time to integrate business with China Unicom," said Sandy Shen, an analyst at Gartner, a US-based IT consulting firm. "China Telecom is expected to launch real competitive products but not before April."

During the industry revamp, China Telecom acquired China Unicom's CDMA (code division multiple access) network.

(Shanghai Daily December 19, 2008)