Following the establishment of eSurfing Telecom Terminal Co., Ltd. at the end of November, China Telecom has recently launched its first batch of branded mobile handsets.

CDMA mobile handset branded by eSurfing - named “ 天翼” [Tianyi] in Chinese - are going to be on the market with the 189 number already by the end of December.

Apparently China Telecom is making a big effort in building the eSurfing brand. The name itself tells already a completely new brand story. “天翼” stands for “sky” and “wing” respectively, to communicate about the renovated brand experience: affordable mobile services with coverage on a national scale. Moreover 天 is homonymic with添, translating in add – enhance, to communicate about the upgraded service quality and range. The English name is not any less: eSurfing to embody the brand new coverage of mobile internet services: going from broad band internet linkage to mobile phone mailbox.

The launch of this service brand aims at strengthening China Telecom’s overall brand equity of “comprehensive information provider” by creating a new – hopefully soon to be strong - brand in the mobile business, now still dominated by China Mobile.