Rumor: China Mobile Users Switch to Unicom in Portability Trials
Oriental Morning Post, 12/01/10
A telecom industry source said yesterday that a week after number portability trials began in Tianjin and Hainan, China Unicom (NYSE: CHU; 0762.HK; 600050.SH) has gained 3,000 new subscribers, with about 1,000 former Unicom subscribers opting to transfer their numbers away from the operator. Number transfers have for the most part been between Unicom and China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK); very few users have opted to transfer their numbers either to or away from China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK).
Chen Jinqiao, director of the Policy Research Institute at the Ministry of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT)'s China Academy of Telecommunication Research (CATR), said that subscriber activity for the new trials had been lower than expected, but noted that China Mobile had strong user lock-in with value-added services like Fetion and the 139 social network, thus likely lowering users' enthusiasm for change.
Keywords: Chen Jinqiao China Telecom China Mobile China Unicom wireless number portability CATR CHL 0728.HK 0762.HK 0941.HK 600050.SH CHA CHU MIIT mobile subscribers
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