China Mobile is the trade name of both China Mobile Limited () and its ultimate controlling shareholder, China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd. (, formerly known as China Mobile Communications Corporation, "CMCC"), a Chinese

state-owned State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownersh ...

Strait deals ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'', 7 May 2009 company. China Mobile Limited provides mobile voice and multimedia services through its nationwide

mobile telecommunications Mobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to phones which may move around freely rather than stay fixed in one location. Telephony is supposed to specifically point to a voice-only service or connection, though sometimes the l ...

network across

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. China Mobile is the largest wireless carrier in China, with 945.50 million subscribers as of June 2021. China Mobile Limited is listed on the

Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. As of the end of 2020, it has 2,538 listed companies with a combined market capitalization of HK$47 trillion. It is repor ...

.Overview
China Mobile Limited Official Site It is the world's largest mobile network operator by total number of subscribers. , China Mobile Limited's total

market value Market value or OMV (Open Market Valuation) is the price at which an asset would trade in a competitive auction setting. Market value is often used interchangeably with ''open market value'', ''fair value'' or ''fair market value'', although the ...

stood at HK$965 billion, which is the largest

red chip Red chip stocks () are the stocks of mainland China companies incorporated outside mainland China and listed in Hong Kong. It refers to businesses based in mainland China and with (majority) shares controlled either directly or indirectly by a ...

company.

History

Incorporated in 1997 as China Telecom (Hong Kong) Limited,Milestone
China Mobile Official Site China Mobile was born from the 1999 break-up of

China Telecommunications Corporation China Telecommunications Corporation (Chinese: 中国电信集团有限公司), known as its trading name China Telecom, is a Chinese state-owned telecommunication company. It is the largest fixed-line service and the third largest mobile tel ...

. This company continues to provide mobile services, however. In May 2008, the company took over China Tietong, a fixed-line telecomTelecoms in China ''

'', 29 May 2008 and the then third-largest broadband

ISP An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

in China adding Internet services to its core business of mobile services. In October 2014,

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...

and China Mobile signed a $970 million framework deal for delivery between 2014 and 2015. In December 2021, China Mobile announced that its international arm would cease operations in Canada due to national security concerns by the Canadian government.

U.S. sanctions

In November 2020, President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

issued an

executive order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of th ...

prohibiting any American company or individual from owning shares in companies that the United States Department of Defense has listed as having links to the People's Liberation Army, which included China Mobile. On 31 December 2020, the New York Stock Exchange announced that it would suspend trading in China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom from 7 to 11 January 2021 and start the delisting process, causing stock values to drop. On 4 January the decision to delist was suddenly reversed; two days later, the NYSE said that the delistings would proceed. In the aftermath of the delisting, the company announced its decision to raise up to US$8.8 billion ahead of the

Shanghai stock exchange The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) is a stock exchange based in the city of Shanghai, China. It is one of the three stock exchanges operating independently in mainland China, the others being the Beijing Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exc ...

listing, according to an official Weibo post by the company. In March 2022, the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

designated China Mobile's U.S. subsidiary, China Mobile International USA, a national security threat.

Ownership and control

state-owned enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a Government, government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn Profit (econom ...

directly controlled by the government of the People's Republic of China and also a public company which is listed on the NYSE and the Hong Kong stock exchanges, China Mobile has dominated Chinese mobile services since its inception for civilian and military purposes. According to the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

, the company has links to the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five service branches: the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, ...

. , China Mobile controls the vast majority of its domestic mobile services market with a 70% market share.

China Unicom China United Network Communications Group Co., Ltd. () or China Unicom () (CUniq in short) is a Chinese state-owned telecommunications operator. Started as a wireless paging and GSM mobile operator, it currently provides a range of services in ...

and

China Telecom China Telecom Corp., Ltd. is a Chinese telecommunications company. It is one of the red chip listed companies of state-owned China Telecommunications Corporation. Its H shares have been traded on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong since 15 Nove ...

have 20% and 10% shares, respectively. The company likely enjoys substantial

protectionist Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...

benefits from China's government but also experiences frequent government intervention in its business affairs.Asian Economic and Political Issues, Volume 8 (page 84)
2003. Frank Columbus. Nova Publishers. (Google Books) Government control is maintained through a presumably government-owned holding company, China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd. (formerly: China Mobile Communications Corporation; CMCC), that owns 100 percent ownership of China Mobile (HK) Group Limited,
CMCC Official Site (Archive.org cache) which in turn holds over seventy percent ownership of China Mobile–the remainder being controlled by public investors. Established in 2000, CMCC is China Mobile Ltd's current parent company .

Services

Rural subscriber base

Flickr - World Economic Forum - Wang Jianzhou - Annual Meeting of the New Champions Tianjin 2008

China Mobile has historically held a greater share of the rural market than competitors.
. ''Bloomberg BusinessWeek''. 5 August 2009 By 2006, its network had expanded to provide reception to 97% of the Chinese population,
CMCC Official Site and the company has since seen a sustained stream of new, rural mobile customers. It also offers services targeted at the rural market including an agricultural information service, which facilitates a variety of activities such as the sale and purchase of agricultural products, access to market prices for produce and crops, wire transfers, bank withdrawals, and payments, etc.
CMCC Official Site

Overseas activities

The company branched out in 2007 with the purchase of

Paktel Paktel ( ur, ) was the pioneer cellular operator of Pakistan. It was the trend setter company granted license to carry out cellular phone services in Pakistan, set up by Cable & Wireless. It carried out AMPS services until 2004 when the company ...

in PakistanCMCC Officially Enter Pakistani Telecommunication Market, 25 March 2007
CMCC Official Site launching the Zong brand there a year later.ZoNG the first international brand of China Mobile being launched in Pakistan, 5 April 2008
CMCC Official Site In 2013, China Mobile eyed expansion into

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

expressing interest in bidding for one of two licences on offer in a partnership with

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...

although this plan ultimately fell through.

Brands

Mainland China

Mobile services are available in

Mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

under several brands as of 2007. , the below brands are scheduled to be slowly phased out and replaced by an all-encompassing new brand name—And—whose logo combines an exclamation point, the Chinese character for "peace" (), as well as the English word "and". ;Easyown: Tonghai County - Hongqi He - P1360293

( Rough translation: "Travel across China" (lit. "travel the holy states")): a basic

prepaid mobile phone A prepaid mobile device, also known as a, pay-as-you-go (PAYG), pay-as-you-talk, pay and go, go-phone, prepay or burner phone, is a mobile device such as a phone for which credit is purchased in advance of service use. The purchased credit is ...

service more heavily marketed in rural areas ;GoTone: ( Rough translation: "Global Connect"): subscription flagship brandHomepage > Brand & Products > Our Brands
CMCC Official Site (Archive.org cache) ;M-zone: ( Rough translation: "Dynamic Area"): a premium prepaid service popular with youths ;G3: A 3G service brand using

TD-SCDMA The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the Inte ...

(likely introduced post-2007) ;and!和: A 4G/LTE service brand using

TD-LTE In telecommunications, long-term evolution (LTE) is a standard for wireless broadband communication for mobile devices and data terminals, based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/ HSPA standards. It improves on those standards' capacity and speed by us ...

Hong Kong

CMHK China Mobile Hong Kong Company Limited or CMHK (), is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Mobile. The company was incepted in January 1997 and was the first PCS operator to launch such services in Hong Kong. CMHK is currently the largest telecom ...

is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Mobile. It offers

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Insti ...

EDGE Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

HSPA+ Evolved High Speed Packet Access, HSPA+, HSPA (Plus) or HSPAP, is a technical standard for wireless broadband telecommunication. It is the second phase of HSPA which has been introduced in 3GPP release 7 and being further improved in later 3GPP ...

(

MVNO A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobile ...

), FD-LTE and

technologies to customers in this the

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

Pakistan

Zong is China Mobile's brand in Pakistan and is operated by China Mobile Pakistan (CMPak), a subsidiary.

United Kingdom

In December 2017, China Mobile launched a

service in the UK called CMLink. CMLink is aimed at the Chinese population living in the UK and Chinese visitors and students. Plans include free calls to China Mobile phones in China.

Singapore

In June 2020, China Mobile launched a

service called CMLink. It uses Singtel networks, which is one of Singapore's largest mobile network operator. CMLink is aimed at the Chinese population living in the Singapore and Chinese visitors and students. Plans include free calls to China Mobile phones in China.

Network

China Mobile operates a

network,Beijing Olympic Games spur another technological leap forward
China Mobile, 18 Aug 2008 which encompasses all 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and directly administered municipalities in Mainland China and includes Hong Kong, too.

is utilized for data transmission.Networks & Technologies
China Mobile ;3G: Marketed as "''G3''", the company controls 70% of the Chinese mobile market but a far smaller percentage of the 3G market. , its nearly 60 million 3G subscribers account for roughly 9% of its total subscriber base, which is an increase from 3% in 2010.China Mobile Still Dominates, but Faces Competition in 3G. ''morningstar.com'', 22 October 2010 Its 3G network, still under construction in 2010, utilizes the

standard, which China Mobile helped develop. 3G service is available in all of the 4

direct-controlled municipalities A direct-controlled municipality is the highest level classification for cities used by unitary states, with status equal to that of the provinces in the respective countries. A direct-controlled municipality is similar to, but not the same as, a ...

and most of the 283

prefecture-level cities A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. During the Republican era, many of China' ...

in China . ;4G: Marketed as "''and和''", as of 2010, China Mobile has debuted small-scale 4G demonstration networks using a variant of 3GPP's

Long Term Evolution In telecommunications, long-term evolution (LTE) is a standard for wireless broadband communication for mobile devices and data terminals, based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA standards. It improves on those standards' capacity and speed by us ...

, TD-LTE, and has plans for larger, citywide demonstration networks in the future. , such networks are in operation. While prior iPhone models couldn't use the China Mobile network due to the chipset relying on WCDMA-based networks, talks to carry the then unreleased 4G iPhone ( iPhone 5) began in mid-2012. The

iPhone 5c The iPhone 5C (marketed as iPhone 5c) is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the sixth generation of the iPhone. The device was unveiled on September 10, 2013, and released on September 20, 2013, alon ...

and

iPhone 5s The iPhone 5S (stylized and marketed as iPhone 5s) is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the seventh generation of the iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 5, and unveiled in September 2013, alongside the iPhone 5C. Th ...

were sold through China Mobile starting in January 2014. ;Everest: In 2003 and again in 2007, China Mobile provided mobile services on

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

. ;Spratly Isles coverage In May 2011, China Mobile announced its network now includes the controversial

Spratly Islands The Spratly Islands ( fil, Kapuluan ng Kalayaan; zh, c=南沙群島/南沙群岛, s=, t=, p=Nánshā Qúndǎo; Malay, id, Kepulauan Spratly; vi, Quần đảo Trường Sa) are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. Composed o ...

.Ian Mansfield, 18 May 2011
China Mobile Expands Coverage to the Spratly Islands
, Cellular News

References

External links

* * {{authority control 1997 establishments in China Chinese brands Telecommunications companies established in 1997 Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Government-owned companies of China Internet service providers of China Defence companies of the People's Republic of China Government-owned telecommunications companies