China Mobile  said it still aims to grow in the world's largest telecoms market through new subscribers and value-added services such as music and news, despite facing increased competition and pressure on voice margins.

"For next year, we can continue to keep up the growth, not only for subscriber acquisition, but also increase of voice use, value-added data services and data-based services," China Mobile's chairman and CEO Wang Jianzhou told reporters on the sidelines of a telecoms conference in Bangkok.

Beijing unveiled in May a sweeping industry reshuffle that will see the creation of two full-service competitors to China Mobile via mergers and acquisitions between rival Unicom (0762.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and fixed-line operators China Telecom (0728.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Netcom (0906.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

China, where there are 1.3 billion people, only has about 600 million mobile phone subscribers, offering more plenty of room for all operators to grow, Wang said. He declined to give specific forecasts.

Some analysts warn that China Mobile, the world's biggest mobile phone company, faces problems in overseeing the rollout and development of the untested, homegrown 3G technology, known as TD-SCDMA or Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access.

Wang also declined to say when China Mobile expects to reach a deal with Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to sell the iPhone in China.

Wang's comments came after a report in Chinese magazine Zhong Guo Tong Xin that said the negotiations between Apple and China Mobile were close to an end.

source:Reuters