China Mobile, RIM to offer BlackBerry to consumers
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
BEIJING, Dec 8 (Reuters): China Mobile and Research in Motion will offer BlackBerry handsets and Internet service to consumers as well as smaller firms in China, the two firms said Tuesday.
To attract more consumer users, China Mobile would offer BlackBerry phones on China's homegrown TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE networks, the companies said in a joint statement, intensifying the competition among China's telecom trio in handsets.
The companies gave no timeframe for their sales campaign.
China Mobile, the world's largest mobile carrier by subscribers, has offered BlackBerries for large enterprise customers in China since 2006, but has not aggressively promoted the service until recently.
"We will broaden BlackBerry's application from big companies, to small-and-medium sized enterprises, and to individuals," said Wang Jianzhou, the company's chairman.
"We will jointly offer BlackBerry Internet Service in the future, to cater to the needs of individual customers," he told reporters.
China Unicom, the country's No 2 mobile carrier, has already begun to sell Apple Inc's iPhone in China. China Telecom is reportedly aiming to sell BlackBerry and Palm smartphones by early next year.
Wang's firm, the country's dominant mobile carrier with more than two-thirds of the market, was asked by the nation's regulator to build a national TD-SCDMA network.
To attract more consumer users, China Mobile would offer BlackBerry phones on China's homegrown TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE networks, the companies said in a joint statement, intensifying the competition among China's telecom trio in handsets.
The companies gave no timeframe for their sales campaign.
China Mobile, the world's largest mobile carrier by subscribers, has offered BlackBerries for large enterprise customers in China since 2006, but has not aggressively promoted the service until recently.
"We will broaden BlackBerry's application from big companies, to small-and-medium sized enterprises, and to individuals," said Wang Jianzhou, the company's chairman.
"We will jointly offer BlackBerry Internet Service in the future, to cater to the needs of individual customers," he told reporters.
China Unicom, the country's No 2 mobile carrier, has already begun to sell Apple Inc's iPhone in China. China Telecom is reportedly aiming to sell BlackBerry and Palm smartphones by early next year.
Wang's firm, the country's dominant mobile carrier with more than two-thirds of the market, was asked by the nation's regulator to build a national TD-SCDMA network.