China Mobile will start a commercial trial of its 3G service next Tuesday in eight cities nationwide, including Shanghai and Beijing, the world's No. 1 mobile carrier by subscriber numbers said today in Beijing.

It will mark the first time in China that 3G services will be available to the public and is expected to hasten the process of the long-awaited 3G license issuance.

People can subscribe to the TD-SCDMA (time division-synchronous code division multiple access) services with a mobile number starting with 157, according to Gao Songge, China Mobile's spokesperson.

The eight cities include Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Qinhuangdao, Shenyang, Tianjin and Xiamen, where Olympic matches will be held in this summer.

The 3G Phones will cost from 2,000 to 4,000 yuan (US$570), China Mobile said.

Each call with TD-SCDMA phones costs users 0.40 yuan (five US cents) a minute and the receiving call is free. The 30-megabyte data services costs 10 yuan each month and people can choose other data packages up to 300 yuan for 8 gigabytes. Users can also choose prepaid packages from 28 yuan (150 minutes) to 88 yuan (600 minutes).

During the trial, users can enjoy a 50 percent discount of the fees, according to China Mobile.

Most 3G services, from video conferencing, film downloads and multinational games, are rich-data services depending on high-speed networks.