Come September, China Mobile to offer iPhones

China Mobile Ltd, China's largest mobile carrier, is expected to offer Apple Inc's popular iPhone on its network from September, a local newspaper reported on Friday.

"A new iPhone with China Mobile's network will debut and the cooperation will be announced in September," the Shanghai Daily quoted Liu Yang, the firm's marketing official, as saying on his microblog.

The paper said the iPhone will likely be offered on a 4G service.

China Mobile officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Rival China Unicom is the only operator in China, which has 886 million mobile phone users, to offer the iPhone so far.

Shares in China Mobile were up 3.4% in morning trade, outperforming a 1.3% rise in the broader Hang Seng index.