China Unicom Starts 3G Trial

China Unicom is reported to have started a trial WCDMA based network in Baoding City in northern China's Hebei Province. Industry sources told the Interfax news agency that the trials have already commenced.

Baoding is located around 140 kilometres south of Beijing, and is also the setting for a TD-SCDMA trial by China Mobile.

China Unicom has also just announced that its subscriber base for its GSM services stood at 129.46 million at the end of August, up from 128.55 million at the end of July.

China Unicom said on Tuesday that its minority shareholders have approved its merger with fixed-line carrier China Netcom as part of the restructuring of China's telecommunications industry. China Unicom also said its minority shareholders approved the proposed sale of its CDMA operations to China Telecom.

Subscribers for its CDMA service totaled 42.36 million at the end of August, which is down on the  42.76 million recorded at the end of July.

The carrier will be left with a landline network and its GSM mobile network - and is widely expected to receive a 3G license based on the WCDMA format, compared to CDMA EVDO for China Telecom and TD-SCDMA for China Mobile

On the web: Interfax

Posted to the site on 19th September 2008