14 Oct 2009 13:32

China Mobile allocates $4.39 bln for customized handset subsidies

Beijing. October 14. INTERFAX-CHINA - China Mobile Communications Corp. (China Mobile) plans to allocate approximately RMB 30 billion ($4.39 billion) towards the provision of user subsidies for customized handsets in 2010, a China Mobile source told Interfax on Oct. 14.

The RMB 30 billion ($4.39 billion) will be used to provide customized GSM and TD-SCDMA handsets to potential consumers at a lower cost, according to the source, who declined to be named for this article.

China Mobile announced in March that it allocated RMB 12 billion ($1.76 billion) to subsidize customized handsets in 2009, a marked increased from the RMB 8 billion ($1.17 billion) allocated annually over he past three years.

The new 2010 budget of RMB 30 billion ($4.39 billion) is more than double the 2009 customized handset subsidy budget.

According the company's financial report for the first half of 2009, which was released in June, China Mobile had a total of 502.9 million users, of which 959,000 are TD-SCDMA users.

China United Network Communications Co. Ltd. (China Unicom) had a total of 142 million users, of which 350,000 are WCDMA users, and China Telecommunications Corp. (China Telecom) had a total of 43.81 million users, of which 1.3 million are CDMA2000 1x EV-DO users, during the same period.

China Mobile announced its goal to have 3 million TD-SCDMA users by the end of 2009 on Oct. 9.

-CG