China Mobile Ltd, the world's biggest mobile operator, has met with Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs several times on introducing an iPhone based on its network standard.

The operator already had 7.44 million iPhone users on its network even though it did not sell the smartphone through its retail network, China Mobile executives said at a news conference after the release of its first-half earnings.

China Mobile operates a 3G mobile network based on its home-grown TDSCDMA standard, which Apple currently does not support. iPhone users on China Mobile's network do not have access to 3G download speeds.

(Reporting by Lee Chyen Yee; Editing by Chris Lewis)

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