New mobile communications devices aimed at foreign visitors will be launched during the Olympics period in Shanghai, China Mobile's Shanghai branch said yesterday.

The devices will include multi-language customer services, mobile phone hire, wireless Internet access and BlackBerry,

During the Olympics all Shanghai Mobile outlets will provide both Chinese and English services and the customer hotline services will answer questions in Chinese, English and Japanese.

"We have recruited and trained talent to help our overseas friends who are here for the sports," said Xu Ke, the customer service division manager at Shanghai Mobile.

Visitors can rent 2G phones and home-grown 3G TD-SCDMA (time division-synchronous code division multiple access) phones at the carrier's outlets, airports and Olympics-designated hotels.

TD-SCDMA signals cover 98 percent of the city's downtown area, and the network has been upgraded for 3.5G to support data services like mobile TV.

People can get free Wi-Fi services in all Shanghai Mobile's outlets and places in airports, hotels and stadiums during the Olympics.

Shanghai Mobile has more than 10,000 BlackBerry users, half the national level. During the Olympics, visitors can subscribe to BlackBerry with a Shanghai Mobile SIM (subscribe identity model) card or use the roaming services.

China Mobile has cut the roaming and long-distance fee during the Olympics.

(Shanghai Daily August 8, 2008)