China's three mobile operators have incorporated their new infrastructure joint venture China Tower.
The companies have set up operations in 28 of China's 31 provinces, and commenced operations in some of these.
The new joint venture will take over construction of towers for the three operators starting next year, Tencent Tech reported. The JV has set a target of building over 1 million 4G-capable towers over the next two years.
China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom will be responsible for supplying their own base station board cards and antennas. There are an estimated 3.3 million base stations in operation in China at present.
China Tower currently has nearly 10,000 employees, the report states, including 100 a the company's Beijing headquarters.
The three state telcos first cemented plans to establish the tower joint venture in July, committing a combined 10 billion yuan ($1.62 billion) to fund the project.
Under the deal, China Mobile owns 40% of the JV, China Unicom has a 30.1% stake and China Telecom has a 29.9% share.