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China Railcom, China Telecom in Network Connection Talks
China Railcom, an emerging competitor to fixed-line dominator China Telecom, said Tuesday it is in talks with China Telecom on network connections.
If agreement is reached, people will be able to choose the networks of either China Telecom or China Railcom when they make telephone calls.
China Railcom has established branches in 29 provinces.
The firm plans to invest 7.2 billion yuan (US$870 million) in the construction of basic telecom networks. All the funds are from the State Development Bank.
The basic network construction will be processed in two phases. So far the public bidding for the first phase of construction��a network capacity of 2.1 million lines, has been completed. The bidding for the second phase of construction will be finished before the end of this August.
Although China Railcom is still far from strong enough to challenge China Telecom's dominant position in the fixed-line telecom sector, the company aims at securing a 25 percent market share of land lines by 2003 with its network capacity reaching 17 million subscribers.
In addition, the company has not decided whether to merge with China Unicom or go public independently. The final decision will depend on the performance of China Railcom in the next 2 years, said company officials.
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