Under their agreement, China's 1.76 million mobile-phone users and holders of the country's 400 million bank cards will soon be available to pay bills with their mobile phones.

Mobile phones will soon be able to perform many of the same functions as bank cards and hence bring more convenience to customers, according to Shang Bing, vice-president of China Unicom.

China Unicom's partner, China UnionPay, is a financial company established with capital from over 80 domestic financial institutions. Its function is to promote the use of bank cards.

After China UnionPay's launch in March, it has allowed card holders to get cash from different banks .

Before UnionPay, a card holder could only get money from the machines of the bank that issued the card.

The two parties have started to construct a software platform to develop more mobile phone enabled business. Some trials are already under way.

Mobile-phone users will be able to pay their phone bills or shopping bills or check their account balances via their phones as early as end of this year, the two companies said.

China Unicom, the country's minor mobile telecom carrier, is trying to provide more new services in its fierce competition with China Mobile, the dominant mobile carrier.

China Unicom had 52 million mobile-phone users by the end of June, 30 per cent of the country's total.

(China Daily July 27, 2002)