A bilateral roaming agreement will provide Japan's NTT roaming subscribers trial access to over 900 Wi-Fi hotspots managed by China Mobile in six Olympic cities.

As the first phase of NTT's roll out, the coverage will grow to over 4000 hotspots by the end of 2008. Chinese subscribers will also have roaming access to over 1300 NTT hotspots throughout Japan.

China Mobile, the world's largest operator with 400 million customers, is investing heavily in WLAN network deployment throughout China covering 43 airports and over 700 brand hotels. As an official partner of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the network will cover the Olympic venues, stadiums, athlete villages and surrounding areas in six Olympic cities.

International carriers are hungry to access the China market, especially given the current lack of 3G data services and the heightened excitement leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.