China Mobile Ltd. plans to cut mobile tariff by over 10% next year.

As planned, China will issue third-generation (3G) high-speed mobile phone licenses this month or at the beginning of 2009, Li Yizhong, head for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said on December 12, 2008.

Under the scheme, China Mobile, the nation's biggest telecoms operator by market value, will be authorized to offer services based on China's homebrewed TD-SCDMA technology, while China Unicom is expected to get a WCDMA license and China Telecom, a CDMA2000 permit, according to Mr. Li.

If so, the number of China Mobile's subscribers will be likely to shrink because of immature TD-SCDMA terminals. The company should make use of its current user base and tariff advantage to pave the way for new data business in future, noted Wang Jianzhou, board chairman of China Mobile.

Source.163.com