(Corrects to say China Telecom parent, not China Telecom, is studying investment in first paragraph)

MEXICO CITY, Jan 17 (Reuters) - China Telecommunications Corporation, the parent of China's third-largest carrier, is studying a possible investment in Mexico, a company spokesman said on Saturday, a day after Reuters reported that the subsidiary is preparing a possible bid for Mexico's new $10 billion mobile broadband network.

The spokesman for subsidiary China Telecom Corp Ltd did not comment directly on the Reuters story but said in an emailed statement that its unlisted parent China Telecommunications was doing a preliminary study on an investment opportunity in Mexico.

Reuters, citing sources, reported on Friday that China Telecom is looking for Mexican partners to join it in a consortium for the mobile broadband project, with up to several billion dollars of financing already secured from Chinese state-controlled banks.

The proposed network is part of a wider reform designed to break billionaire Carlos Slim's hold on the Mexican telecoms business and to improve poor broadband penetration levels.

(Reporting by Christine Murray in Mexico City and Gerry Shih in Beijing; Editing by Frances Kerry and Miral Fahmy)