The 3G mobile exhibition booth of China Unicom Ltd at a high-tech expo in Beijing. The mobile phone operator offered a cheaper iPhone package amid rising competition. [Photo /  China Daily]

HONG KONG - China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd, the country's second-biggest mobile-phone operator, offered a cheaper iPhone package amid rising competition with larger rival China Mobile Ltd in the world's biggest wireless-phone market.

The Beijing-based company started offering a 66-yuan-a-month ($10) plan for the iPhone after previously setting the lowest-priced package at 96 yuan, President Lu Yimin said on Tuesday after meeting shareholders in Hong Kong.

Unicom beat China Mobile in 2009 to become the first carrier in the country to offer the iPhone. China Mobile is boosting investment in its network of wireless hotspots to attract users of Apple Inc's best-selling handset, while China Telecom Corp is also in talks with the US company to introduce the product.

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"It is a trend" for rival carriers to offer services based on the iPhone device, Chief Executive Officer Chang Xiaobing said on Tuesday. "We don't have a choice in this, and must be ready to face this environment."

Demand for the iPhone will help Unicom exceed its target of adding 25 million customers for its third-generation (3G) services this year, Lu said.

China Mobile, whose 3G network technology isn't supported by the iPhone, has 4 million subscribers using the Apple handset through the company's network of WiFi hotspots, Chairman Wang Jianzhou said last week. Wang said he expects Apple to develop an iPhone for the fourth-generation technology that the company hopes to commercialize next year.

Unicom fell 1.5 percent to HK$16.02 ($2) in Hong Kong trading on Tuesday. The stock has gained 44 percent this year, compared with a 10 percent decline for China Mobile, the world's biggest carrier by users.

Unicom, the only carrier in China offering the iPhone with a service contract, added 1.82 million 3G subscribers for a total of 20.4 million in April, the company said this month. That lagged behind the 29.4 million 3G users for China Mobile, whose total customer base of 606.2 million is almost double Unicom's 323.6 million.

China Telecom, the country's biggest fixed-line carrier, is in talks with Apple to offer a CDMA version of the iPhone, Chairman Wang Xiaochu said last week.

Bloomberg News