According to reports on Xinhuanet and in the China Daily, China Mobile (Hong Kong) has announced that it has begun talks to acquire the final 10 provincial networks from its State-owned parent.

Such an acquisition would give China Mobile all 31 of the provincial networks built by its parent, China Mobile Communications.

"No financing plan has been formulated," Hong Kong-listed China Mobile said in a statement. "Further announcements will be made by the company when the terms of the acquisition and the related financing are determined."

China Mobile will acquire networks in 10 of China's poorest provinces, including Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Guizhou, Yunnan, Tibet, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang. Last month the company's main rival, China Unicom, announced that it would be purchasing 9 provincial networks based on the wireless GSM standard from its parent, China United Telecommunications, by year-end. At the same time, also expected around year end, is the closing of China Telecom's deal to buy 6 provincial networks from its parent for 46 billion yuan (US$5.56 billion).