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BEIJING (Reuters) - China Mobile, the world's largest mobile phone operator, said on Saturday that it was seeking small stakes in global telecom firms because controlling stakes had become too expensive.

Although minor holdings would give China Mobile only limited sway over target companies, Chief Executive Wang Jianzhou said there would be wider benefits from such deals.

“Entering into international telecom firms as small shareholders can help us learn from their experiences and gradually develop further,” he told a seminar on the sideline of the Boao Forum for Asia in southern China.

China Mobile Ltd. (0941.HK) last year bought an 89 percent stake in money-losing operator Paktel Ltd. for $284 million, its first acquisition outside its home market.

Wang said many telecom firms were looking at a small pool of targets in emerging markets, which was greatly driving up acquisition prices.

“It's not realistic for us to try to always get controlling stakes at very high prices,” he added, without revealing which markets he was interested in.

Discussing delays in bringing Apple's (AAPL.O) iPhone to China, Wang said China Mobile was very interested in doing so because many of its customers were hungry for the phone.

The mobile operator said in January that talks with Apple Inc (AAPL.O) on launching the U.S. company's popular iPhones in China had been called off, although Apple has never commented officially on the issue.

“The door is always open and as long as our clients like it, we will actively push for it,” he said.

Wang added that the two sides had reached a consensus on some manner of cooperation but had yet to discuss a range of technical issues. He did not elaborate.

He also said that China Mobile, which is listed only on the Hong Kong market, had not dropped its aim of floating a small batch of shares in Shanghai at some point despite the turbulent market conditions.

(Reporting by Eadie Chen, editing by David Christian-Edwards)

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - The Australian government has called for bids for a A$9.4 billion ($8.8 billion) high-speed broadband network that will help the country catch up in competitiveness with its peers.

Australia has slower and more expensive Internet access than many other developed countries and officials have warned Australia may become less competitive without faster, nationwide coverage.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said in a statement late on Friday the government wanted the fiber network to deliver minimum speeds of 12 megabits per second to 98 percent of Australian homes.

About 64 percent of homes have broadband now. The vast distances in Australia and often inhospitable terrain make full penetration difficult.

The government is offering A$4.7 billion ($4.4 billion) in funding, which it wants the winning firm to match.

A consortium of nine firms led by Optus, owned by Singapore Telecommunications, and the former government monopoly Telstra Corp Ltd are expected to bid.

It has not been decided whether the network will deliver fiber to the neighborhood “node,” usually in each street, or directly to homes.

Conroy also suggested the separation of the network and services operations of the dominant telecom may be considered, as has happened recently in New Zealand.

“The government is prepared to consider changes to existing telecommunications regulations, to facilitate the roll-out of the network,” he said.

Proposals are due by July 25 and a decision is expected in October.

“Telstra is ready to build this network, as long as it makes business sense to do so,” Telstra spokeswoman Kate McKenzie said.

Analysts have said Telstra's existing copper and fiber network gave it a head start over any rivals, but it would be at loggerheads with the government over how much to charge for fast broadband.

($1=A$1.08)

(Reporting by Victoria Thieberger; Editing by Jan Dahinten)

Blizzard Entertainment reported Friday that its game World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade recently surpassed one million concurrent users in China. That's the highest concurrency since the game was launched in China in 2005.

World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role playing game available for Mac OS X and Windows. The game was released in the United States in late 2004 and spawned an expansion pack, the Burning Crusade. Blizzard is presently working on a second expansion pack for World of Warcraft, the Wrath of the Lich King.

Blizzard works with The9 Limited in mainland China. The9 Limited operates online games in China, primarily licensed from other companies like Blizzard, but has also developed its own proprietary MMO.