China Telecom: major news with mobile devices, and Alcatel-Lucent

China Telecom seems to have splurged all of its mobile device related news in one go today. There are three separate moves it has made with devices since yesterday – along with an announcement regarding network provider Alcatel-Lucent.
Handsets, handsets, handsets:

China Telecom has gone on what can only be described as a spending spree for new 3G handsets. Having made up it’s mind to focus on cheap, lower-end 3G devices, Telecom planned to buy up around three and a half million devices. However, somewhat like a kid in a candy store, it has ended up buying 400,000 more phones than it had planned, for a grand total of 4 million 3G devices.

31 different firms are providing the 4 million phones, which will be selling at an average price of around $150. Some of the cheapest models will be going for around $70 – which is a damn sight than their current prices, which are close to $500.

Telecom seems to be pulling a Nokia on this one – having missed out on the smartphone rush, it is trying to cut its losses by being the main go-to-guy for people who want a cheap 3G device without all the bells and whistles.

Music phones:

Again using a spread of companies, Telecom is launching a series of mobile devices geared towards music. Handsets from Nokia, Huawei, Motorola and Samsung will all be part of the initial five phone launch.

These phones are being launched to compliment Telecoms new mobile music service. iMusic will initially launch with 100,000 songs that can be searched and downloaded by China Telecom users.

Palm and Blackberry en route:

Telecom was involved in talks with RIM as far back as 2008, but very little seemed to come of them… until now. According to Trading Markets, Ma Wu, an executive from the Terminal Division of China Telecom, has confirmed that China Telecom is in talks with both Palm and RIM to create versions of their smartphones that will work on the Telecom network.

Alcatel-Lucent provides IP backbone:

Alcatel-Lucent may still be depressed about the moves Ericsson is making in Canada, but the future isn’t all cloudy. It recently announced $1.7 billion worth of network upgrade and maintenance contracts with Chinese mobile operators. $700 million of that was a contract with China Telecom – but Alcatel-Lucent has announced that it has signed a further purchasing contract as part of the deal. The centralised purchasing deal means that French company’s Asian flagship, Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, will be the sole point of sale for equipment for an IP network that will cover 10 provinces in China.