China Telecom in Guangdong is testing an instant messaging product called Kao Mi (pinyin for "Call Me") across the province and intends to soon popularize the product nationwide.

Tom Online last week launched a similar China-wide partnership with Skype, a Scandanavian provider of instant messaging and voice solutions.

Similar to China-based QQ and Microsoft's MSN service, Kao Mi can be used to send text messages, files and has video-based functions. But different from the QQ and MSN, Kao Mi also can be used to communicate with fixed phones and Little Smart phone users. This is similar to the type of services Skype has planned to unveil soon to users in China.