- In continuation of the company's acquisition of the mobile phone numbers starting with the 188, China Mobile recently announced that these numbers will be launched at the beginning of 2009, the Sohu IT News reported on December 16, quoting the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of China Mobile, Wang Jianzhou. The 188-prefix phone numbers, which have been allocated exclusively for TD-SCDMA, will be released in bundled packages with TD-SCDMA phones.

In related news reported by Sina News on December 18, Wang claimed that by 2011, China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network will cover 95% of the prefecture-level cities in China, and the total number of TD-SCDMA base stations will increase by 100,000 to reach 145,000 within the next three years.

The company also revealed its TD-SCDMA development roadmap. In 2009 and 2010, China Mobile plans to cover 60% and 80% of the prefecture-level cities, respectively, with the network coverage reaching around 200 and 266 cities in these two years. The network coverage is slated to reach 316 cities by 2011. As of December 15, 2008, China Mobile had a total of 337,000 TD-SCDMA subscribers, of which 154,000 were the participants in the social trials starting from April 1, 2008, 105,000 were Olympics staff members, and 78,000 were participants in commercial trials for TD-SCDMA services, according to the same source.