China Mobile Communications Corp. (CMCC) on Friday released plans for its acquisition of fixed-line operator China Tietong Telecommunications Corp. (China Tietong), which would become CMCC's wholly-owned subsidiary but maintain independent operations.
The announcement was the signal that China's long-anticipated telecom industry reshuffle was beginning. The restructuring is expected to involve another mobile company, China Unicom, and other two fixed-line service providers, China Telecom and China Netcom.
Analysts believe that the five companies, all state-owned, will be restructured into three groups, each able to provide both mobile and fixed-line services.
The restructure was planned by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (cabinet) and the Ministry of Industry and Information.
No formal statements have been released by the government agencies or the companies involved, but sources close to the restructuring told Xinhua that the final scheme was largely in line with expectations.
In a management shift at CMCC, the world's biggest cell phone operator by the number of users, former general manager Zhang Chunjiang of China Netcom becomes the deputy general manager and leads the company's Party branch, said CMCC in a statement.
Wang Jianzhou will remain CMCC's general manager but serve as the deputy chief of the Party branch.
While all other deputy general managers retain their duties, former chairman Zhao Jibin from China Tietong, former deputy general manager Li Zhengmao from China Unicom and former deputy general manager Zhang Xiaotie from China Netcom have also been appointed as CMCC's deputy general managers and members of its Party branch.
The reshuffle does not involve China Mobile Ltd., which is CMCC's wholly-owned listed company.
As part of the broader plan, China Unicom, the second-largest mobile operator, was anticipated to split its two mobile networks.
It would sell the code-division multiple access (CDMA) network to China Telecom and incorporate with China Netcom to operate its global system for mobile communications (GSM).