China’s leading mobile network operators (MNOs) China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom are positioning themselves at the forefront of the emerging artificial intelligence (AI) economy through the introduction of universal AI token plans, a development that could reshape how consumers access and pay for AI services, according to GlobalData, a leading intelligence and productivity platform.

Emma Mohr-McClune, Chief Analyst, Telecoms at GlobalData, says: “Industry insiders are starting to speculate that such token plans will start replacing the data quota model that has been deployed by MNOs worldwide since the dawn of the smartphone – but we think it’s too early for such claims. Unquestionably, Chinese MNOs are on the money when it comes to attempting to gain a pole position for universal, multi-model AI token brokerage and billing.”

According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, AI token usage increased a thousand-fold over the last two years to 140 trillion tokens per day in March 2026. GlobalData notes that this surge is being driven by the rapid adoption of large language models (LLMs) and agentic AI applications.

Mohr-McClune continues: “Whereas legacy mobile business growth in China is stagnant, the use of LLMs and the AI tokens required to use them in the age of agent-based workflows is mushrooming.

“Agentic AI, with its multi-task workflows, require significantly more tokens per output compared to standard generative AI use cases, and are largely responsible for this token usage spike, in all markets.”

GlobalData believes the emergence of token-based AI service plans reflects broader efforts by operators to identify new growth opportunities beyond traditional connectivity services. However, the company notes that adoption of similar models outside China may face significant structural challenges.

Mohr-McClune says: “Token plans, it seems, have become mainstream overnight in China, but that is hardly a competitive response mechanism. All three Chinese MNOs will bear the brunt of educating their respective consumer customer bases of the need to upgrade to paid-for token plans, providing for a likely better adoption rate than, say, a single MNO in a market outside China.”

In collectively priming their customer bases for telco-billed universal token packages and plans, the three Chinese MNOs are aligned with the Chinese government’s mission to accelerate towards the AI economy.

Mohr-McClune concludes: “The hard truth: MNOs outside China would be hard put to replicate the structural, regulatory, and national AI policy alignments which have allowed Chinese MNOs to today position themselves as both the broker and billing engine for consumer universal AI tokens with such apparent ease.”