The Chinese are Coming

China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator by subscriber numbers, has thrown down a gauntlet to the European mobile industry by opening a brand new international office in London. The new HQ, which forms part of the operator's planned global expansion, will oversee its moves into European, Middle Eastern and African markets.

To begin with, the company says, its London headquarters will merely oversee mobile use abroad for China Mobile customers. Later the operator plans to move into emerging markets and to provide services for Chinese people living abroad. According to chief representative, Henry Ge, the company plans to partner with other leading operators to gain access to operating licenses and stimulate expansion, though he did not provide any details.

Last month, company CEO, Wang Jianzhou, said the giant telco plans to take advantage of falling share prices in Asian stock markets to pick up stakes in foreign companies, or even seize control, at relatively low prices.

According to Wang the company will concentrate on gaining a foothold in emerging markets. So far, the Chinese giant has made only one foreign foray, when it purchased the Pakistani telco Paktel for US$284 million. Since then, China Mobile has resisted the urge to make further overseas investments, citing overblown share prices as the reason for staying its hand. For a while China Mobile was rumoured to be on the verge of buying international cellular holding company Milicom International for US$5.3 billion, but in the end the deal failed to materialize. 

The company has also recently denied rumours that it was planning to make some joint investments with UK-based mobile giant Vodafone, which owns a stake in the Chinese operator.