China’s telecommunications industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation, shifting its core business model from selling voice minutes and mobile data to packaging and trading artificial intelligence tokens. This week, the country’s three state-owned telecom giants (China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom) collectively unveiled token-based service plans, marking the official dawn of the consumer AI token economy.
According to TechNode, the strategic pivot is a direct response to the explosive growth in generative AI usage across the country. Data from China’s National Data Administration reveals a staggering trajectory: average daily token usage in China has skyrocketed from 100 billion at the start of 2024 to 140 trillion by March 2026. This represents an increase of more than 1,000 times in just over two years, creating a massive new market for computing power distribution.
The move by the telecom operators signals an end to the industry’s long-running price wars over traditional data packages. Instead, carriers are now competing to become the primary gateways for AI services, leveraging their vast network infrastructure and billing relationships with hundreds of millions of consumers.
Pricing the Token Economy
China Telecom has moved aggressively to establish early dominance in this new paradigm. On Monday, the carrier announced a range of trial commercial token packages aimed directly at consumers and households. The entry-level plan is priced at just 9.9 yuan ($1.40) per month for an allocation of 10 million tokens. Mid-tier and high-tier plans offer 40 million tokens for 29.9 yuan ($4.20) and 80 million tokens for 49.9 yuan ($6.90), respectively.
For developers and small businesses requiring heavier usage, China Telecom introduced professional-tier plans ranging from 39.9 yuan ($5.60) to 299.9 yuan ($42.00) per month, with token allowances reaching up to 150 million. To support this rollout, the company also launched the China Telecom Token Ecosystem Alliance, partnering with entities across the AI value chain.
China Mobile, the country’s largest operator, is taking a regional pilot approach backed by extensive ecosystem partnerships. In Shanghai, the carrier has partnered with Tencent to launch an AI-native workspace platform offering 400,000 tokens for a mere 1 yuan ($0.14), seamlessly integrated into mobile billing. In Beijing, users can purchase entry-level computing power add-on packages starting at 5.99 yuan ($0.84), while a 24.99 yuan ($3.50) monthly package includes 10 million tokens.
This consumer push follows China Mobile’s broader enterprise strategy. Earlier this month, the company launched China’s largest AI model service platform, integrating over 300 models. By centralizing operations, China Mobile claims it can reduce per-token costs by approximately 30 percent, a crucial advantage in a price-sensitive market.
China Unicom is focusing its efforts on emerging AI-driven usage scenarios. In Shanghai, the carrier is offering one-person company (OPC) users a free trial allocation of 30 million tokens, bundled with AI cloud desktops. In Hubei province, China Unicom rolled out three token-tier packages ranging from 6 million to 18 million tokens, priced between 7.5 yuan ($1.05) and 359 yuan ($50.30).
The Infrastructure Behind the Tokens
The ability of these telecom giants to offer such vast quantities of tokens at consumer-friendly prices is underpinned by massive investments in domestic computing infrastructure. The carriers are not just reselling access to third-party models; they are actively building the data centers and networks required to process these workloads.
This infrastructure build-out is increasingly reliant on domestic hardware. For instance, Alibaba recently launched a 10,000-card AI computing cluster powered by its proprietary Zhenwu AI chips, and has partnered with China Telecom to power data centers in southern China.
The strategic importance of these telecom operators extends beyond domestic borders. Their growing influence in the AI infrastructure space has drawn international scrutiny. Last month, the FCC moved to bar China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom from U.S. data centers and network interconnections, citing national security concerns. This geopolitical friction further incentivizes the carriers to focus on dominating the domestic token economy.
As token operations rapidly replace traffic monetization as the industry’s new strategic focus, the competition for this trillion-yuan market is only beginning. The transition from selling gigabytes of data to selling millions of AI tokens represents a fundamental shift in how digital services are consumed and billed. For Chinese consumers, AI is no longer a specialized tool accessed via standalone apps; it is becoming a basic utility, metered and sold by the megatoken alongside their monthly phone bills.