{"slug": "chinas-top-phone-companies-launch-packages-covering-ai-use", "title": "China’s Top Phone Companies Launch Packages Covering AI Use", "summary": "China's three largest telecom operators — China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom — launched commercial AI token packages this past week, allowing users to track and bill AI usage through mobile phone accounts alongside traditional services. Plans start as low as 5 yuan ($0.70) per month, with China Unicom offering 30 million free tokens to Shanghai-based one-person companies and China Mobile extending its pilot nationwide after testing in Beijing and other regions. The move marks a strategic shift for telecom firms from selling communication services to computing power and AI, targeting government agencies and state-owned enterprises as primary customers amid a 1,000-fold surge in daily token consumption to over 140 trillion by March 2026.", "body_md": "[NEWS](/features/26166/news?source=normal_article)\n\n### China’s Top Phone Companies Launch Packages Covering AI Use\n\n[Chen Yiru](/users/1016304/chen-yiru?source=normal_article)\n\nChina’s top three telecom operators — China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom — unveiled commercial AI token packages this past week. The plans enable tracking and billing AI usage through mobile phone accounts, alongside mobile data, SMS, and broadband services. Users may purchase individual or team plans.\n\nOn May 16, China Unicom’s Shanghai branch announced it would provide token services to local one-person company users, with each eligible to receive 30 million tokens for testing as well as half off their first plan. Plans start at 15 yuan ($2.20) per month with a 6-million token quota. A day later, China Telecom launched its trial of commercial token packages, with prices starting at 9.9 yuan per month for 10 million tokens.\n\nAfter piloting the initiative in several regions, including Beijing and the central Hubei and Henan provinces, China Mobile announced on May 20 that its token plans would be extended to users nationwide. Plans start at 5 yuan per month, and tokens can be used on AI applications provided by Chinese tech giant Tencent.\n\nA token is the smallest unit of information processed by AI large language models. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, daily token consumption across all users in China averaged 100 billion at the beginning of 2024, jumping to 100 trillion by the end of 2025 and exceeding 140 trillion by March 2026 — a more than 1,000-fold increase in two years.\n\nIndustry insiders told domestic media that the products represent a shift by telecom operators from selling communication services to computing power and artificial intelligence services. Companies such as Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud have also launched their own token services.\n\n“Currently, how tokens are charged and by what standards is really a ‘black box’ for users. There is no concrete benchmark for usage cost,” industry analyst Ma Jihua said in an interview with domestic media. “Whether charges can be made more transparent and cheaper in the future is key to the growth of this service.”\n\nAccording to industry insiders, government entities and state-owned enterprises are currently the major customers of these token packages.\n\nPan Helin, an industry expert at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said, “These operators’ advantages lie in computing power and security. Their main customers are government agencies and enterprise clients, in particular state-owned enterprises, given their need to transition from digital systems to AI.”\n\n*Editor: Marianne Gunnarsson.*\n\n*(Header image: VCG)*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chinas-top-phone-companies-launch-packages-covering-ai-use", "canonical_source": "https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1018564/China’s Top Phone Companies Launch Packages Covering AI Use", "published_at": "2026-06-03 08:05:30.450510+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-03 08:05:34.537709+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products", "ai-infrastructure", "large-language-models", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["China Mobile", "China Unicom", "China Telecom", "Tencent", "Chen Yiru", "National Bureau of Statistics"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chinas-top-phone-companies-launch-packages-covering-ai-use", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chinas-top-phone-companies-launch-packages-covering-ai-use.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chinas-top-phone-companies-launch-packages-covering-ai-use.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chinas-top-phone-companies-launch-packages-covering-ai-use.jsonld"}}