British mobile phone group Vodafone said it was joined China Mobile and Softbank to increase the commercial deployment of mobile Internet services, Reuters reported recently. The initiative is intended to promote applications that run across handset platforms and operating systems of different mobile operators.

China Mobile Communications Corporation, also known as China Mobile or CMCC, is the largest mobile phone operator in China. It is the world’s largest mobile phone operator ranked by number of subscribers, with over 380 million customers (as of end of February, 2008).

While Softbank, which was established in Tokyo, Japan, on September 3 1981, is a leading Japanese telecommunications and media corporation.

By linking up with two Asian giant telecommunications corporates, Vodafone seems to plan some significant steps in the coming months.

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