China Mobile to increase handset subsidy budget by 25% in 2009, says paper

China Mobile plans to increase is handset subsidy budget to 10 billion RMB (US$1.46 billion) in 2009 from 8 million RMB in 2008 to promote TD-SCDMA handsets, according to Jian-Zhou Wang, CEO of China Mobile, as cited by a Chinese language Economic Daily News (EDN) report.

The subsidy covers applications such as 2G and 3G handsets and mobile Internet cards, the report noted.