China Telecom mulling BlackBerry offering

We've got to assume that it's a momentous occasion for a manufacturer any time they have an opportunity to break into the world's single largest phone market, so if they're prepping the bubbly out in Waterloo, we can't say we'd blame them. China Telecom -- one of China's three nationals -- reported this week that it has engaged RIM about the possibility of bringing BlackBerrys to its lineup. No deal has been made just yet, but considering that China Unicom doesn't offer any of the devices and China Mobile's been soft on marketing it, Telecom could have an ace up its sleeve if it brings hot models to retail and pushes 'em hard. RIM's not talking so far, so there's no telling where the talks are -- or when the deal might be finalized.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 27th 2009 12:29PM]

Telecom is CDMA. That means they're probably stuck on Verizon or Sprint's release schedule. They have a lot of catching up to do in the mobile market (their forte is landline/DSL) and this is probably one of the ways they plan on doing so. Another is that they're supposedly set to get Sharp's KDDI lineup sooner or later.