China Mobile has signed an agreement with Research in Motion (RIM) to distribute the Blackberry line of wireless products and services on the mainland, a move that may help it slow a decline in revenue per user.

The deal could give RIM, which has a tie-up with Hutchison Telecom and CSL in Hong Kong, access to the mainland's 315 million mobile subscribers. RIM's flagship Blackberry products allow users to access their electronic mail accounts using wireless technology, and have about 1.6 million users worldwide.

"This is a good opportunity for Blackberry to gain a foothold in the China market," CLSA head of telecom research Francis Cheung said. "There should be good demand for wireless data services from corporate users." However, the success of Blackberry on the mainland will depend on the pricing structure, he said, adding that demand has been hit by the high licensing fees for the Blackberry server software in Hong Kong.

China Mobile had over 191 million subscribers at the end of August. Half-year sales this year increased 13% to 86.4 billion yuan (HK$81.41 billion) from the same period last year, with net profits rising 8% to 18.8 billion yuan.

Source: The Standard. Copyright 2004 The Standard. Distributed by Financial Times Information Limited (Trademark)