China’s largest fixed-line operator by subscribers, said it will plans to add new smart phones and increase capital spending as it tries to gain ground in the world’s biggest mobile market.
China Telecom has been trying to boost its stature in the mobile business after buying a portion of rival China Unicom Ltd.’s wireless business in 2008 as part of a government-mandated restructuring of its telecom sector. But despite the purchase, China Telecom has lagged China Mobile Ltd. and China Unicom. Analysts said competition is likely to rise further this year and operators will be bogged down by higher marketing expenses and rising network-depreciation costs.
On Monday, China Telecom reported a jump in full-year profit after a write-down hurt year-earlier results. Profit for 2009 rose to 14.42 billion yuan (US$2.11 billion), from 884 million yuan a year earlier, when the company booked a 24.17 billion-yuan impairment loss on property, plants and equipment, mainly associated with the mobile business. Revenue rose 12% to 209.37 billion yuan from 186.53 billion yuan.
The company plans to offer Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry devices in China in May and Palm Inc.’s Pre handsets in July, Chairman and Chief Executive Wang Xiaochu said at a news conference.
China Telecom is the second Chinese mobile operator to sign a deal with Canada-based RIM to offer BlackBerry devices. China Telecom hopes BlackBerry devices will help attract more affluent customers in Chinese cities. RIM has offered BlackBerry handsets to big businesses in China since 2006 through China Mobile, the world’s biggest telecom operator by subscribers. China Unicom offers Apple Inc.’s iPhones [ WSJ ].
