MIIT's number-portability trials could boost China Mobile

摘要

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has been trying to keep the dominance of China Mobile in check, but its recent announcement regarding trials of mobile number portability (MNP) might actually strengthen China Mobile's hand. The MIIT has announced that operators will begin trials of MNP for 2G subscribers in Tianjin and Shenzhen in October. The ministry has been considering various measures to curb China Mobile's lead over China Unicom and China Telecom (see "MIIT plots," p. 3) -which is buying Unicorn's CDMA business -but the two-way-MNP trial might undermine such moves, analysts say. "The MNP trial is positive for China Mobile given its more superior network and service quality and it could take a long time before its competitors are able to narrow the gap," an analyst wrote.