China Mobile Ltd, the world's biggest mobile operator by subscriber base, said on July 11 that it successfully developed the first TD-SCDMA 3G mobile phone supporting the Near Field Communication technology.

NFC is a short-range communication technology that can be incorporated into mobile phones to perform functions such as paying for goods or swapping information.

NFC mobile phones can help China Mobile to promote its mobile payment services, as the telecom carrier tries to find new sources to boost its sluggish revenue growth.

China Mobile bought a 20 percent stake of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank in 2010 to strengthen its mobile payment services. The two companies held a demonstration of their mobile payments solutions at the GSMA Mobile Asia Expo in Shanghai in June. The solutions included a service similar to Google Inc's Google Purse, which enables people to connect their bank accounts to smartphones and make payments by phone.

Other two Chinese telecom operators - China United Telecommunications Corp Ltd, known as China Unicom, and China Telecom Corp Ltd - have also launched mobile payment branches.

China Unicom established a mobile payment arm in 2011 with registered capital of 250 million yuan ($39.26 million).