China Unicom Business Overview

By the end of 2008, China Unicom had 273 million subscribers, among which the broadband subscribers totaled 30.16 million, GSM subscribers 133 million and fixed-line (including PHS) subscribers 109 million. The corporate is among the Top 500 in the world in terms of its revenue, and ranked in the top of the world leading telecom operators in terms of its customer base and market capitalization of its listed company.

On the basis of the merger of former China Netcom, China Unicom has subsidiaries in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across China and many countries and regions around the world. It is the only Chinese telecom operator listed on the stock exchanges in New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai. As of the end of 2008, the total assets of the Company reached 500.09 billion yuan and the number of employees stood at 463,000.

The corporate, which aims to debut its 3G services in May 2009, announced the three digit prefix for its 3G phone numbers and promised current 2G users that they would be able to switch to 3G without changing their current number. Meanwhile, people using 3G phones, including the iPhone 3G, will be able to enjoy high-speed 3G services if they subscribe to Unicom, without unlocking their phones.

The corporate, which operates a national 3G network based on WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) technology, is going to use numbers beginning with 186 for 3G subscribers. Its current users, with numbers starting with 130, 131, 132 and 156, will also be able to subscribe to 3G services without changing their number, said The corporate's Shanghai branch.

The corporate, the country's No. 2 mobile carrier, is going to invest 100 billion yuan (US$14.7 billion) in its network this year.

It is expected to finish construction of its 3G network in 55 cities in the first half of 2009 and a total of 282 cities by the end of 2009.

The corporate gained 1 percent to 5.04 yuan, compared to a 2.44-percent increase in the market's index.

In January 2009, China issued 3G licenses to three carriers - China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom - based on three different technologies. Using the 3G networks, users can enjoy high-speed services including video conferencing and film downloads on handsets.

With 3G, the WCDMA phone download speed is up to 14.4 megabytes per second, 40 times faster than current peak speeds.

WCDMA is the most commercially mature technology of the three as it has been widely adopted worldwide. Therefore, many popular Shuihuo, or overseas phones, support WCDMA, including the iPhone 3G and Nokia N96.

But owners of overseas 3G phones, have to change their phone numbers if they want to use China Unicom's 3G services.

In Shanghai, the corporate will launch more price-aggressive fee packages soon.

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