Despite its success with consumers, the mainland's alternative mobile telephone service Xiaolingtong is no threat to the two big operators as its radio spectrum rights will be terminated by the end of next year, according to China Unicom's chief.
'The Ministry of Information Industry has decided to take back the Xiaolingtong spectrum by the end of [last year],' said China Unicom chairman and chief executive Yang Xianzu, when asked whether the emerging alternative wireless services would hurt the existing operators.
China Mobile and China Unicom remain the only licensed mobile telephone operators, but fixed-line players such as China Telecom have successfully offered limited wireless phone services - a Personal Access System (PAS) known as Xiaolingtong or 'Little Smart'.
PAS connects directly with the fixed-line phone networks and offers identical tariffs - one eighth those charged for cellular services by China Mobile and China Unicom.
The dominant fixed-line operator began large-scale commercial operation of the Xiaolingtong services in 1999 after its GSM (global system for mobile communications) business was spun-off to China Mobile Communications Group under the government's plan to restructure the telecoms sector.
China Railway Telecom (China Railcom), the third-largest fixed-line operator, is conducting trials for a similar service in Shanghai.