At present, the 4 major players providing mobile or quasi-mobile services in Mainland China are :
China Mobile (GSM)
China Unicom (GSM and CDMA)
China Telecom (Xiaolingtong product)
China Netcom (Xiaolingtong product)
Xiaolingtong is actually an extension to fixed line comminication service , which is a PHS based telecommunications service rather than under the mobile licenses of mainland. Currently, only China Mobile and Unicom have mobile licenses.
Xiaolingtong cannot provide roaming services and the mobility is low compared with the existing mobile technologies. Yet it is welcomed by low end users as the tariffs are extremely low compared with other mobile operators, while it can still provide certain local call services.
If people are confident and have a thorough understanding of the telecom market environment in China, particularly on this low end niche market-Xiaolingtong, Netcom should be their choice. However, it seems that Netcom is unlikely to enter into 3G Market in China in future