Analysts believe there will be a huge shift in the Chinese telecoms market soon which will open it up to competition.

In what is being touted as the first step, China Mobile, the world's biggest wireless carrier, will take over Railcom. Fixed-line telco, Railcom, has assets of $6.11 billion and employs 72,000 staff across China, was spun off from the Ministry of Railways in 2004.

If the Chinese free up the telecoms industry, it would mean that telco manufacturers such as Motorola and Nortel could make a fortune building competing wireless networks.

The shake-up is expected to leave China with three industry giants from four, but with fixed-line operators China Telecom and Netcom allowed to gain entry to the fast-growth mobile business it will make competition more cut-throat. China Mobile is currently the biggest mobile phone company in the world. X

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Reuters