The Chinese government has unveiled a plan to open the nation's telecom sector to more private investment.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will allow private investment in areas including broadband services, mobile resale and value-added telecom services, China Dailyreported.
A circular issued by the ministry reveals it will encourage private capital investment in the design, deployment and operation of telecom equipment including base stations and telecom towers.
The ministry will also support operators' plans for IPOs on mainland stock exchanges. This will further dilute the state's ownership in China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile, opening them up to more private investment.
All three operators are already have listings on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
The operators will also gain support for their various overseas expansion efforts. China Telecom, for example, plans to open a series of MVNOs in Europe based on the model used by its UK MVNO, which launched in May.
This month, the operator also incorporated two new enterprise units in Brazil.