China Telecom and Alibaba will jointly release inexpensive smartphones dubbed "Tianyi Taobao Shopping Handsets", aimed at boosting mobile commerce in smaller cities and rural areas. The phones will come installed with either an app for easy access to Alibaba's flagship Taobao online shopping platform or its home-grown YunOS mobile operating system. Buyers will be eligible for four months of free 2G data service.

Six models produced by Coolpad, Hisense and TCL would come with the Mobile Taobao app pre-installed. Mobile Taobao is China's most popular mobile shopping app.

China Telecom said the phones will have large displays and will not lack performance. Their price will range from 299 to 699 yuan ($48-112).