China's MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) has slated mobile number portability trials for October in Tianjin and Shenzhen and expects the policy to gain nationwide currency in 2009, ChinaTechNews reported.

Except for TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) numbers with the 157 prefix, mobile subscribers in these two cities will be able to use their original numbers when switching to different telecommunications services or operators, according to Sina News. That is to say, mobile users originally subscribing to other networks may switch to China Mobile's TD-SCDMA service and retain their original numbers, but users of the 157-prefixed numbers will not able to use their present numbers when switching to other networks.