An unnamed source said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) plans to start a six-month trial of its "same mobile number" network transfer service in Hainan and Tianjin in April 2010, reports Guangzhou Daily. The MIIT's China Academy of Telecommunication Research will begin integrating China Mobile (NYSE:CHL, 941.HK), China Telecom (NYSE:CHA, 728.HK) and China Unicom (NYSE:CHU, 762.HK, 600050.SH) databases in April 2009 to establish a platform within seven and a half months, said the source. The three operators will then test network connections for the next two and a half months and use the service internally for the following one and a half months, said the source.

MIIT decided in late December 2008 to move network transfer trials from Shenzhen to Hainan, but kept Tianjin as a pilot city.