China Mobile offers new data packages

China Mobile will offer more data and favorable price packages to 20 million users in Shanghai from Friday as it aims to compete with its two rival state-owned carriers.

China Mobile’s users in Shanghai will be able to enjoy upgraded packages of 50 yuan (US$7.35) for 4 gigabytes of data on average, four times more than the previous package. An entry-level 4G package will cost 30 yuan under the new policy, compared with 50 yuan for the previous package, according to Shanghai Mobile.

The telco aims to offer users flexible choice, low entry threshold and more value-added services like free data for video services and low-cost broadband services. For example, Shanghai Mobile users can enjoy free 30 GB data for one of the video streaming services from iQiyi, Tencent and its own Migu services.

China Telecom will announce new marketing campaigns for its broadband services in Shanghai on Friday.

China Unicom is conducting a fund-raising exercise of 78 billion yuan from investors including Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.

China will cancel long-distance and national roaming fees from September, which forces all carriers to develop new growth engines for revenue, analysts said.