China – China Telecom Corp Ltd, the nation’s largest fixed-line operator signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Hubei provincial government to establish the biggest information communication hub and an advanced information platform in central China areas, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Under the agreement, China Telecom will invest RMB 15 billion in the province in the next five years to expand its high-speed wireless and broadband networks, while the local government in Hubei Province will support the telecom operator’s strategic development and its businesses in the province. China Telecom’s Hubei branch this year will invest an additional RMB 1.9 billion in wireless network development, with the aim to cover the whole province with its CDMA network. The company last month announced that its first-quarter net profit declined 27 percent from a year earlier to RMB 4.7 billion, while its major rival China Mobile Ltd, the country’s largest telecom operator, posted a 5.2 percent increase in net profit for the same period. China Telecom signed up 1.87 million new CDMA users in April, bringing the total number to 34.71 million. Meanwhile, the total number of its fixed-line service subscribers had dropped to 202.1 million at the end of April and the number of its broadband service subscribers had increased 720,000 to 47.49 million.