China’s telecom industry is entering its next major business transition, evolving from selling voice minutes to monetizing mobile data and now to packaging and trading AI tokens. This week, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom collectively unveiled token-based service plans and ecosystem partnerships, signaling how operators are positioning themselves for the rise of the token economy.
The latest moves mark a strategic shift away from the industry’s long-running price wars over traffic and data packages, as telecom carriers seek new growth engines tied to AI services, computing access and tokenized consumption models.
China Telecom has moved first to stake out its position in the emerging token economy. On Monday, the carrier announced a range of trial commercial token packages, offering consumer and household plans priced at 9.9 yuan ($1.40) per month for 10 million tokens, 29.9 yuan ($4.20) for 40 million tokens and 49.9 yuan ($6.90) for 80 million tokens, alongside integrated token, connectivity and security services.
For developers and small businesses, China Telecom introduced professional-tier plans ranging from 39.9 yuan ($5.60) to 299.9 yuan ($42.00) per month, with token allowances reaching as high as 150 million.
