(Yicai Global) Nov. 29 -- China Telecom has been the most successful in luring in new customers after the nation piloted a policy under which users could hold onto their old phone numbers when changing service providers. China Mobile was on the losing side. 

China Mobile's clients made up nearly 58 percent of all the participants of the mobile number portability program since it began on Nov. 10, state-backed The Paper reported, citing data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. More than 49 percent of the users jumping ships fell into China Telecom's lap. The policy has now been expanded nationwide.

By Nov. 26, nearly 3.2 million phone owners chose to participate in the pilot, making up less than 2 percent of the triplet's total number of clients.

The third major operator, China Unicom, balanced its loss with new users for the most part.

Editor: Emmi Laine