Photo/Shetuwang

Apr. 30 (NBD) -- China Mobile (00941, HK) on Monday announced that the State Administration for Market Regulation of China is probing into whether certain sales activities of four of the company's provincial subsidiaries in respect of sales of the customized 4G+ handsets could be anti-competitive.

Such sales activities include paying subsidies to the distributors and setting sales performance targets on the handset manufacturers for the purpose of increasing the sales of the specially customized 4G+ handsets, stated the Chinese telecommunication giant.

China Mobile has suspended the sales activities giving rise to the concern, but added that the handsets comply with all relevant technical specifications under China's laws and regulations.

National Business Daily (NBD) on Monday noticed that a variety of customized 4G+ phones were still available at the online store of China Mobile.

With this regard, a source with the company told NBD what has been suspended is the specific sales activities, rather than sales of 4G+ phones.

What are customized 4G+ phones?

Such handsets, instead of fitting all kinds of networks, are adjusted to receive only 4G signals of China Mobile's network. Even for a "customized" phone with two slots, any SIM card other than one of China Mobile will support merely calls and texting via a 2G network.

Industry insiders believed the ongoing investigation is connected to the fight between China Mobile and China's two other telecommunication leaders back in 2017.

At the time, China Telecom and China Unicom jointly submitted a report to local market regulators, accusing China Mobile of carrying out monopoly conduct.

Ma Jihua, an independent analyst previously explained to NBD that China Telecom and China Unicom were aimed to scramble for the "second slot" of 4G+ phones of China Mobile which boasts advantages in terms of the user base, as data traffic has become the major revenue contributor for these telecom operators.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn