BOC Finances China Unicom's GSM ExpansionThe Bank of China (BOC) Guangdong Branch has launched a 1.6 billion-yuan loan to China Unicom to assist the network expansion of its globe system of mobile phones (GSM).The bank has extended loans worth 15 billion yuan nationwide for expanding Unicom's GSM, in accordance with an agreement signed in June 1998 in which BOC promised to finance a total sum of 22 billion yuan to the telecom company. The fund will cover Unicom's construction costs ranging from the GSM network, long-distance phone systems to digital telecom network. Unicom's GSM project in Guangdong province will allow 560,000 new mobile phone subscribers to increase mobile phones to 6 million by the end of this year. The province offers the largest varieties of mobile phone services in China. The number of mobile phone users in Guangdong topped 8 million this year, accounting for 17 percent of the country's total. |
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