With eyes on this summer’s London Olympics, China Telecom has entered into an agreement with UK’s Everything Everywhere Ltd to utilise existing local mobile networks to expand its operations on the strength of Chinese population in UK.

Chinese visit UK in large numbers with tourists, business leaders and students constituting a vast chunk. At present at least six hundred thousand Chinese citizens are living in England with an estimated two million Chinese in Europe.

China Telecom is the largest company in terms of number of landline subscribers.

China Telecom said that the deal with Everything Everywhere Ltd, the British operation of the combined European communication giants France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom would provide an opportunity to the company to make inroads into the UK market with large number Chinese expected to land in UK to witness the games.  

“Entering the UK mobile market is a strategic move. We are keen to launch the service in the UK as soon as possible as there is a real gap in the market for the provision of tailored mobile services and competitive tariffs aimed at the growing Chinese population in the UK”, said Managing Director of China Telecom Europe, Ou Yan.

UK’s Everything Everywhere has more than twenty-eight million customers and with combined European communication giants France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom Orange and T-Mobile, and China Telecom can utilise their extensive 3G network to roll out their plan.

The services will be provided in Chinese languages to make it easier for the Chinese population to call china. It won’t be very costly. However it is not clear whether it will also sell the handsets.

“If the uptake is good, China Telecom will also set up packages that will make customers in China able to easily contact mobile phone users on the plan in the UK, making communication easier and more affordable for families and businesses in both countries”, the company said in a statement.