China Telecom will purchase 20 million 3G handsets from manufacturers in 2009 and plans to launch its second round of handset procurement shortly, an executive of China Telecom's handset subsidiary said.

China Telecom is expected to purchase 50 million CDMA handset this year, including 20 million 3G mobile phones, said Ma Daojie, vice manager of China's Telecom's Tianyi Communication Equipment, cited by Chinese news portal website NetEase.

According to earlier reports, China Telecom is scheduled to launch 3G wireless broadband services in 324 cities within the first six months of 2009 and pour 80 billion yuan (US$11.70 billion) into CDMA network upgrade and expansion in the coming three years, when the company expects to increase the number of its CDMA users to 100 million from 28 million.

China Telecom launched its first round of 3G handsets bidding last year and, more recently, began its 3G data card procurement process.

(China Daily February 9, 2009)