China Mobile (CHL) has launched four new payment packages for its TD-SCDMA mobile phones, cutting the price of its trial 3G service close to the rate for fixed-line phones to attract more users and gain a advantageous position in the future 3G market.

According to the statement published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, China Mobile will add four new TD-SCDMA packages, including a family package, campus package, enterprise package and SMEs' office switchboard package with monthly charges of CNY10, CNY25, CNY30 and CNY100, respectively, to its existing CNY28, CNY58 and CNY88 packages.

To attract campus users, China Mobile offers a CNY25 package, including 150 short messages, 100 megabytes of data traffic and free incoming call display. With an exception of the campus package, users of the other three new packages will be able to enjoy call rate of CNY0.22 for the first three minutes and CNY0.11 for the following minute, which is similar to China Telecom's fixed-line rate.

The new packages will be first launched in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Tianjin from September 2008 and according to the market feedback of these three cities, the new packages will be available in other seven cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Xiamen, Qinhuangdao, Qingdao and Baoding, that have TD-SCDMA or 3G networks.