China Unicom Expanding 3G Coverage to 168 Cities in August

Published on: 1st Jan 1970: 1:33am

China Unicom is to expand the commercial trials of its new WCDMA based network to a further 168 cities next month. The operator, which started 3G services in May, is already testing its 3G network in 100 cities.

The South China Morning Post said that the newly added cities are in 18 provinces, including Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Hunan, Liaoning, Sichuan and Yunnan.

China Unicom expects that its capital expenditure with reach US$8.8 billion during 2009, with a further US$5.8 billion to be spent in 2010. China Mobile recently said that it plans to spend US$8.6 billion on its own network during 2009.

Chang Xiaobing, chairman of China Unicom (Hong Kong) has previously commented that he expects the company's 3G services to turn a profit in 2010, but warned that profit margins could be hit by increasing competition.

A recent study by TNS supported this view, when it found price was the dominant factor amongst consumers considering a service upgrade. They also care a lot about network performance, including geographic coverage (54%), stability (50%), and speed (35%).

Rival operators, China Telecom already covers 300 cities with its CDMA based 3G network, while China Mobile is building out its TD-SCDMA services in 38 cities. There have been suggestions that China Mobile, which was forced to use the home-grown 3G technology, is running slowly with its 3G rollout so it can leapfrog over to the more widely supported LTE late next year.

On the web: South China Morning Post

 

Tags: [china unicom]  [wcdma]  [3g]  [testing]  [unicom]  [3g network]  [China]