China Telecom and China Unicom signed a partnership deal on Wednesday, marking the two companies'latest joint efforts to take on China Mobile.

The two companies said they will deepen their cooperation in 4G network construction, smartphone technology standardization, customer services, innovation business as well as overseas roaming services.

Yang Jie, general manager of China Telecom, said the deal will also involve capital cooperation, but did not offer more details, adding it had nothing to do with the merger of the two companies.