Rumours abounded this week that China Telecom and China Unicom would merge, with China Mobile also linking up with national cable TV operator China Radio and Television Network to tackle surplus capacity in the telecoms industry.
According to several reports, the rumours originated from Chinese microblogging platform Weibo and have since been described as untrue by a spokesperson from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
In an analysis of the situation, Forbes Asia said rumours about a China Telecom-Unicom merger are probably false, as such a move would leave only two big players in the sector.
However, Forbes also said there is a small chance that the rumours are true – “perhaps 10-20%” – largely because a merger of China Telecom-Unicom merger could help reduce the dominance of China Mobile.
