Qualcomm should be happy. China Telecom, one of the biggest users of CDMA technology, continues to attract new mobile subscribers, logging a net gain of 4.93mn mobile subscribers in Q109 compared to a loss of 1.17 mn users in Q408. China Telecom is moving more aggressively to bundle 3G services with its wireline voice and broadband offerings, and is leaning heavily on staff to make their sales targets or head for the door.

For the quick financial rundown, check this Reuters report. The quarterly increase in mobile subs isn’t a surprise, given that January and February net adds had turned positive. They’re still down on a YoY comparison, but China Telecom is starting to benefit from more aggressive advertising of its 3G service, dubbed Tianyi, and its ability to offer the convenience of a bundled service (wired and wireless voice, broadband, and, in some cases, IPTV), something that China Mobile cannot do and that China Unicom has yet to fully roll out.

During recent travel through several first and second tier cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guiyang, Kunming and Chengdu, it was clear that China Telecom is ramping up its ad campaign – although China Mobile trumps it 5 to 1 in most cases. Still, Telecom is making a respectable effort, especially in Tier 1 cities like Shanghai and Beijing. Moreover, the much wider selection of CDMA phones compared to TD-SCDMA phones used at China Mobile gives China Telecom an edge in the race for subs.

Last week, Telecom said it had rolled out service in 120 cities and is claiming it will have coverage of 300 cities within three months. Put another way, that means 98% of urban users and 93% of rural villages would have coverage by the end of July. Impressive, if it happens – but that’s really the easy part. The hard part will be keeping those new subs pouring in.