China officially greenlights virtual telecommunications operators

Beijing. Jul 25. Silkroadnews - China has officially greenlighted virtual telecommunications operators after almost five years of the pilot project, Xinhua reports.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued official licenses to 15 private virtual telecommunications companies for Internet access resale.
Virtual operators, including Chinese technological giants Alibaba and Xiaomi, do not support the network infrastructure, but rent wholesale services, such as roaming and text messages, from the three largest operators of the country’s telecommunications infrastructure - China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom.
To make the telecommunications industry more open, in 2013 China began issuing pilot licenses to private companies to to allow them to offer repackaged mobile services to users, the report reads. A total of 42 Chinese enterprises received pilot licenses to operate telecommunications businesses.
Provision of official licenses to virtual telecommunications operators is aimed at encouraging innovations in the field of mobile telecommunications and improving the quality of service in general.