China Unicom and China Telecom users will be eligible to apply for accounts with China Mobile's Fetion mobile instant messaging service beginning in November, CCTime said on Monday citing an inside source from China Mobile.

This is exactly what consumers want, said the source, we are simply satisfying that demand.

Currently, there are approximately 180 million registered PC and mobile Fetion accounts, with 89.16 million active users.

Fetion has previously only been available for use by China Mobile subscribers.

A beta enterprise edition of Fetion was released not long ago that already supported connectivity between subscribers and non-subscribers of China Mobile, CCTime said.

According to Sina Tech, China Mobile said it is currently in research on the new service, but has no definite timetable.

A representative at China Telecom said they had not heard of the development.

China