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| A screen shot of China Mobile’s web site. |
China Mobile Shanghai’s website, running the “4G is here!” slogan, invited potential customers to preorder the iPhone 5S and other smartphones from Samsung Electronics Co. and Sony Corp. that support the company’s new 4G mobile network.
A quick test to preorder an iPhone 5S didn’t work Monday. A phone call to a China Mobile customer representative confirmed that customers can preorder iPhones from the site starting Thursday.
“Customers can begin to preorder for our new 4G services from Dec. 12 through the company’s website and some dedicated branches in Shanghai. But we will only start providing commercial 4G services after Dec. 18,” the customer services operator said.
China Mobile is preparing a pricing plan for new iPhones but the company hasn’t informed the customer services team of the details yet, the representative said.
A China Mobile spokeswoman said that she couldn’t comment on the advertisement.
China Mobile plans to unveil a new brand for its 4G services at a global partner conference in Guangzhou on Dec. 18, according to its website. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that China Mobile had signed a long-awaited deal with Apple to offer iPhones on its network.
Analysts said China Mobile is eager to launch its new high-speed services as soon as possible and it hopes new iPhones can help attract subscribers to its more profitable data services. The mobile giant has been operating homegrown 3G mobile technology and has continued to lose market share to two smaller rivals, China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd and China Telecom Corp. Using more common 3G technology, China Unicom has offered iPhones since 2009 and China Telecom began selling iPhones in 2012.
According to a notice on China Mobile’s website, the company will offer commercial 4G services in cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjian, Shenzhen and Nanjing by the end of this year. China Mobile also said it is striving to expand its 4G network coverage to other Chinese cities.
Source : WSJ
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