China Mobile has arranged to acquire a sister company's fixed line business for 31.88 billion yuan ($4.98 billion) as part of efforts to strengthen its presence in the fixed line market.
The company announced that subsidiary CM TieTong will acquire TieTong's fixed line assets, including its more than 10 million fixed line customers.
The assets also include as nationwide fiber backbone spanning around 99,000 cable kilometres, a metro fiber network covering around 1.8 million cable kilometres, and a pool of around 24.7 million IPv4 addresses.
In the announcement, China Mobile said it believes the acquisition will be important in facilitating the transformation of the company into a fully-integrated fixed-mobile operator.
It will also enable China Mobile to obtain a fixed broadband license and allow the company to pursue opportunities in the fixed broadband market.
In addition, the operator said it will be taking on employees with extensive experience in the management and maintenance of fixed networks and will allow the company to simplify its management and operational structure.
China Mobile plans to pay for the acquisition from its existing cash reserves. The final price will be subject to an adjustment of up to 1 billion yuan.