Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is advising state-owned China Telecom, one of China's largest phone companies, on a $13.3bn (£8.4bn) acquisition of the 3G mobile network infrastructure currently held by its parent company, reports The Asian Lawyer.

The Freshfields team, which includes Beijing partner Richard Wang, is being led by Hong Kong-based China chairwoman Teresa Ko (pictured). Freshfields also acted as adviser to China Telecom on its $3.7bn (£2.3bn) dual listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange in 2002.

US firm Sullivan & Cromwell is also advising China Telecom with a team led by China head Chun Wei, while Beijing-based Jingtian & Gongcheng is serving as the company's Chinese counsel.

US and Hong Kong-listed China Telecom has a large fixed-line business but the smallest mobile division of China's large state-owned telecom carriers, which include China Mobile and China Unicom. The acquisition will give the company direct control over future network investment decisions and allow it to better integrate its service offerings.

China Telecom currently leases bandwidth from its parent, incurring a cost which would have increased with its subscriber base. China Telecom is banking on growth via a deal it signed with Apple earlier this year to offer the iPhone 4S.

The deal is subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals, and is expected to close by the end of 2012.

The role for Freshfields comes after the magic circle firm advised China Unicom on its $1.4bn (£902m) buyback of shares from Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica earlier this year.

The Asian Lawyer is a US affiliate title of Legal Week.