Unicom Takes on CDMAChina Unicom Group, the nation's No 2 mobile phone operator, said Thursday it plans to spend 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) on building a 10 million subscriber network using CDMA (code division multiple access) technology this year.US-based Qualcomm Inc, the main CDMA technology copyright holder, will be its partner for the construction, according to Yang Xianzu, chairman of the board of China Unicom. "Qualcomm is helping us (with the technology) and I think the CDMA business will be beneficial to both of us," Yang said. US-favoured CDMA is technologically the same as Europe's GSM system -- currently the most popular mobile phone standard in the nation. China Unicom is the only company to receive authorization to construct and operate a CDMA network in China, due to a move by the State to support its competition with rival China Mobil, which currently dominates the market. Yang said the total cost will depend on the bidding, but it should be lower than the construction of the GSM system. The more the network costs, the bigger the potential contracts for equipment vendors such as US-based Lucent Technologies Inc and South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. Yang said the company aims to increase its total GSM subscriber base this year by 50 per cent to 30 million. Rival China Mobile Communications Corp claims around 75 per cent of the country's 85 million mobile users. Yang also said the company is seeking strategic foreign partners for its mobile, fixed-line and data businesses. Source: chinadaily.com.cn |
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