Chinese telecom operators have accelerated their efforts to bundle their services with mobile phone packages to gain higher profits and stronger control of the industry.

China Mobile, the country's largest mobile operator, said yesterday it and its partners would start to promote mobile phones embedded with China Mobile's services nationwide.

The first batch of 10 models of phones will bear the logos and brands of both the mobile operators and phone producers.

Motorola and Sony Ericsson will supply three models respectively, while Alcatel, Nokia, Samsung, and NEC will supply one model each.

"This model is set to promote the develop of the mobile communications industry and even the whole telecom industry," said Li Mofang, chief engineer for China Mobile.

With the partnerships, China Mobile will have a greater say on the appearance, embedded services, and functions of the phones.

Phone users can access China Mobile value-added services like mobile securities trading, mobile e-mail, and mobile chatting.

The largest mobile operator in the world has been troubled by a slow-down in revenue growth, although its subscribers reached more than 180 million by the end of last year.

Value-added services have become a good way to increase average subscriber spending, but most users have to configure the phones themselves to get access to the mobile Internet and the use of value-added services.

Embedding the services and their configurations into the phones will attract more people to use the services.

Phone makers can also increase their shipments with the brand reputation of China Mobile and its distribution network.

China Unicom, the second-largest mobile operator in China, also said last week that it would order 500,000 mobile phones based on its requirements from Motorola, Samsung and LG to support its GSM1X system, which is scheduled to launch in July.

(China Daily May 18, 2004)