China will issue telecommunication services licenses to more companies next month after the permits have been given to 19 private firms as virtual carriers since the end of last year, said the Shanghai Daily.

The licenses will be given to the third batch of new virtual carriers "soon" to encourage market competition and innovation in the industry, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.

The current 19 virtual carriers, including Alibaba.com Inc and JD.com, have launched own-brand SIM cards and data services purchased from China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, which have dominated the industry for several decades.

Virtual carriers have launched services like free data for games and unlimited roaming call packages, which were previously not included in the packages of the three telco giants.

China's 1.1 billion consumers can expect new services from the virtual carriers. Foreign capital is also expected to invest more in the telecom industry, including virtual carriers, media reported yesterday.