--- title: "From \"Data Fees\" to \"Token Fees\": Which of the Three Major Telecom Operators Is the Biggest AI Winner?" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/286875036.md" description: "J.P. Morgan believes that as the telecommunications industry transitions from a data-driven model to an AI Token economy, telecom operators have officially become direct beneficiaries of AI monetization. With computing power capital expenditures continuing to rise, CHINA TELECOM, which has the highest proportion of cloud business revenue, offers the greatest elasticity. In the future, the actual financial contribution of Token revenue to ARPU will serve as a sustainable validation metric for valuation reshaping" datetime: "2026-05-19T08:02:28.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/286875036.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286875036.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/286875036.md) --- # From "Data Fees" to "Token Fees": Which of the Three Major Telecom Operators Is the Biggest AI Winner? The stock prices of the three major telecom operators rose collectively for two consecutive days. The intensive rollout of Token packages is reshaping the market's valuation logic for this sector—the narrative of the telecommunications industry moving from a data economy to a Token economy is being rapidly priced in by capital markets. In terms of market performance, on May 18, CHINA TELECOM's A-shares surged more than 7% during intraday trading, hitting the daily limit at one point, and closed up 7.74%; China Unicom rose more than 5.5%, and China Mobile rose 2.43%. On May 19, the three major operators continued their upward trend, with CHINA TELECOM rising more than 8% intraday, while China Unicom and China Mobile both rose more than 2%. The H-share market reacted synchronously: CHINA TELECOM-H rose 6%, China Unicom-H rose 4%, and China Mobile-H rose 0.2%, all significantly outperforming the Hang Seng Index, which fell 1.1% on the same day. According to Zhuifeng Trading Desk, J.P. Morgan Securities (China) analysts Chen Qi, Yao Cheng, and Xu Wentao characterized this rebound in their latest report as "investors' optimism regarding the three major telecom companies becoming 'physical' beneficiaries of AI monetization." The firm believes that in addition to traditional mobile and broadband services, the three companies can now directly monetize AI Token consumption, which helps drive ARPU recovery. It maintains an "Overweight" rating on the three major operators. This business model leap from "data billing" to "Token billing" will become the core theme for the fundamental revaluation of operators in the coming years. ## Intensive Rollout of Token Packages: Operators Complete Comprehensive Positioning in the Sector The direct catalyst for this round of market movement was the intensive launch of commercial Token packages by the three major operators within a short period. **CHINA TELECOM** took the lead by launching a national trial commercial Token package at the group level, becoming the first operator to complete unified group-wide deployment. Personal and family user packages are divided into three tiers: monthly fees of 9.9 yuan, 29.9 yuan, and 49.9 yuan, corresponding to 10 million, 40 million, and 80 million Tokens, respectively. Packages for developers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are priced at monthly fees of 39.9 yuan, 159.9 yuan, and 299.9 yuan. In terms of model resources, the package integrates CHINA TELECOM's proprietary Xingchen large model, Zhipu GLM5, and other mainstream domestic models, supported by a combination of proprietary and third-party intelligent computing resources. Notably, CHINA TELECOM's product positioning is not solely tied to model invocation; instead, it embeds Token services into comprehensive scenarios such as connectivity, security, enhanced broadband upstream, and AI cloud computers, creating an integrated product for SMEs and developers. **China Mobile**'s layout focuses more on platforms and ecosystems. At the 2026 Mobile Cloud Conference, China Mobile upgraded its Token business from standalone packages to a platform-level strategy, with the core carrier being the Mobile Model Access (MoMA) platform. MoMA has accessed over 300 mainstream AI models, including its proprietary Jiutian foundation models as well as DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, and GLM, supporting text generation, speech processing, and multimodal understanding. The platform achieves intensive Token operations through unified API access, intelligent routing, real-time metering, and streaming billing. It has also formed a Token operation ecosystem alliance with partners such as Tencent, Alibaba, and Huawei, adopting a "self-built + cooperation + joint operation" model to aggregate heterogeneous computing power resources. **China Unicom**'s products differ in pricing. Packages for individual users are also divided into three tiers: monthly fees of 15 yuan, 30 yuan, and 45 yuan, corresponding to 6 million, 12 million, and 18 million Tokens, respectively, with a converted unit price of approximately 2.5 yuan per million Tokens. Token packages for both personal and team versions of Unicom Cloud and its MaaS platform "Unicom Yuanjing" have gone online, covering application scenarios such as personal productivity, content creation, student learning, enterprise R&D, government and enterprise office work, and industry digitalization. J.P. Morgan pointed out in its report that the proportion of cloud business revenue is a key indicator for measuring the elasticity of each company's AI monetization. Forecast data for 2025 shows that **cloud business revenue accounts for approximately 25% of CHINA TELECOM's total service revenue, compared to 12% for China Mobile and 21% for China Unicom.** This means CHINA TELECOM has the greatest elasticity benefiting from the Chinese AI Token theme and the positive sentiment brought by the launch of DeepSeek V4. ## AI Capital Expenditures Continue to Rise; Token Monetization Path Remains to Be Verified J.P. Morgan believes that the three major operators are accelerating their investment in AI infrastructure. According to the firm's forecasts, the computing power capital expenditures (covering cloud/IDC/AI) of the three major operators will continue to rise in 2026, with CHINA TELECOM increasing by approximately 26% and China Mobile by approximately 62%, demonstrating the operators' strong willingness to invest heavily in the AI sector. J.P. Morgan suggests that investors focus on tracking several key observation points: first, the AI Token and cloud business revenues disclosed in the first half and full-year results of 2026 (referencing Alibaba's disclosure method for MaaS annual recurring revenue); second, new announcements regarding AI infrastructure procurement; and third, the acquisition of large enterprise AI orders, including businesses such as MaaS, cloud, and data centers. The three major operators completed comprehensive positioning in the Token sector within just two days, marking the telecommunications industry's formal farewell to pure data competition and entry into a new growth cycle driven by AI capability monetization. For investors, whether Token revenue can form a quantifiable contribution to ARPU in financial statements will be the core validation metric for judging whether this logic can be sustainably realized. ### Related Stocks - [601728.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/601728.CN.md) - [00728.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/00728.HK.md) - [600941.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/600941.CN.md) - [00941.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/00941.HK.md) - [CHA.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/CHA.US.md) - [600050.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/600050.CN.md) - [00762.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/00762.HK.md) - [00HSI.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/00HSI.HK.md) - [JPM.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JPM.US.md) - [09988.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/09988.HK.md) - [BABA.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BABA.US.md) - [00700.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/00700.HK.md) - [HCMD.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HCMD.SG.md) - [80941.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/80941.HK.md) - [JPM-M.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JPM-M.US.md) - [JPM-C.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JPM-C.US.md) - [JPM-D.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JPM-D.US.md) - [JPM-L.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JPM-L.US.md) - [8634.JP](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/8634.JP.md) - [JPM-K.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JPM-K.US.md) - [JPM-J.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JPM-J.US.md) - [89988.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/89988.HK.md) - [HBBD.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HBBD.SG.md) - [TCEHY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/TCEHY.US.md) - [80700.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/80700.HK.md) - [HTCD.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HTCD.SG.md) - [TCTZF.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/TCTZF.US.md) ## Related News & Research - [Can the business model of operators launching AI token packages be viable?](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286700860.md) - [China Telecom launches trial AI Token subscription plans starting at $1.4 per month](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286702846.md) - [AI disruptor listed on CNBC 50 for third year in a row.](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286901079.md) - [Jack Antonoff tells people who are making AI art to 'drive right off that cliff'](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286592426.md) - [AI face is taking over — and driving plastic surgeons crazy](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286641783.md)