China Unicom aims to launch 3G first

August 30, 2004

China Unicom is confident it can launch 3G mobile phone services faster and cheaper than its competitors.

Wang Jianzhou, chairman and chief executive of Unicom, said the company's CDMA network has an advantage over GSM networks when migrating to 3G. GSM operators need about 18 months to build a WCDMA network capable of handling 3G communication while existing CDMA network needs only minor modifications to accommodate 3G traffic.

"Once the 3G license is granted, we can roll out our CDMA 3G network in six months," Wang said.

Unicom also owns a GSM network but the company does not intend to upgrade it to WCDMA.

Rival China Mobile estimates it will take around 60 billion yuan over three years to build a WCDMA network running in parallel to its existing GSM network.

Unicom's migration to 3G is expected to cost less than half of what China Mobile will have to pay.

(£1 = 14.86 yuan)