China Telecom (News 
- Alert) is set to enter the United Kingdom mobile phone market by utilizing existing local mobile networks in the UK. This service will be useful to Chinese residents, tourists, business leaders and students in the UK.
China Telecom provides fixed-line telephone, mobile service, internet and applications services.
To provide this plan, China Telecom has entered a deal with Everything Everywhere Ltd, the British operation of the combined European communication giants France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom (News - Alert). Everything Everywhere has close to 28 million customers. China Telecom is targeting the UK market ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games in London, when the number of Chinese tourists arriving in the UK is expected to increase considerably. In a release, Managing Director of China Telecom Europe, Ou Yan, said, “Entering the UK mobile market is a strategic move. We are keen to launch the service in the UK as soon as possible as there is a real gap in the market for the provision of tailored mobile services and competitive tariffs aimed at the growing Chinese population in the UK.”
As this plan is intended primarily for the Chinese population in the UK, the service will be available in Chinese languages. China Telecom has not announced whether it will also sell branded handsets along with the service. However, customers can choose mobile handsets priced at less than $150 which are available in the UK market and avail China Telecom’s UK coverage plan.
Depending on the response for this plan, China Telecom intends to design packages to allow customers in China to contact mobile phone users on the plan in the UK. This will ensure communication for families and businesses in both countries. The new service will be available to customers from end of March 2012.If this UK coverage plan is successful, China Telecom intends to expand the operation to mainland Europe as it has estimated the number of Chinese residents there to be close to 2 million.
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Calvin Azuri is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Calvin’s articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by
Rich Steeves
