China telecom giants form joint venture

China's three state-owned telecom giants established a joint venture company on Friday to share infrastructure and save on operational costs.

The company, named China Communications Facilities Services, has registered capital of 10 billion yuan (1.62 billion US dollars), with China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom holding 40 percent, 30.1 percent and 29.9 percent of shares respectively.

It is expected to reduce unnecessary construction of iron towers and related telecom facilities and save investment of 30 billion yuan in the sector in the next five years, according to company chairman Liu Aili.

The company will be open to private investment in about one year to 18 months and will develop a mixed-ownership structure later, said Liu.