Taiwan-based Asia Pacific Telecom and Chinese mainland China Telecom have decided to launch a strategic cooperation in three major areas in the second quarter of 2011.

According to reports in Taiwanese local media, the two parties will officially start a joint procurement mechanism, focusing on the buying of smartphones with prices of under CNY1,000. The joint procurement will cover mobile phones, tablet computers, and other terminal products.

The two companies will further expand their cooperation to the cross-border data roaming service sector, following their cooperation in the voice roaming service last year.

Vincent Chih, chief executive officer of Asia Pacific Telecom, reportedly revealed that the company bought 1.1 million mobile phones in 2010 and it plans to buy 1.2 million to 1.3 million terminal devices this year. It plans to introduce the Chinese mainland mobile phone brand Coolpad and Samsung's tablet computers. Meanwhile, it will increase the procurement ratio of smartphones from 11% in 2010 to between 20% and 25%.

To date, Asia Pacific Telecom has 2.94 million users and it aims to gain over 3.2 million users by the end of the year.