Unicom to Announce CDMA bid winners in January.
JohnG
Monday, December 13, 1999
TELECOMS
Unicom to name
network suppliers soon
Fledgling telecom operator China Unicom will announce
equipment suppliers next month for the construction of
its seven billion yuan (about HK$6.53 billion)
nationwide cellular network.
"Bid winners will be announced in January next year,
first-phase network construction will be completed the
following summer," Tan Xinghui, Unicom's planning and
marketing general manager, told the China Daily
Business Weekly yesterday.
Foreign suppliers engaged in joint ventures with cellular
network manufacturing capabilities in the mainland will
get priority in the bidding, Unicom vice-president Lu
Jianguo said.
Bids from 12 foreign and domestic companies were
presently being evaluated, he said.
The US-standard cellular network will offer mainland
customers an alternative to the European GSM system.
The GSM system presently dominates the mainland's
rapidly growing mobile-phone market.
Nortel Networks and Motorola currently have formal
network joint ventures in the mainland, while Lucent
Technologies has the capability to manufacture
equipment in its local joint venture.
The report said the mainland's State Council, or cabinet,
recently approved China Unicom as the sole negotiator
in dealing with related matters including intellectual
property rights matters and joint venture proposals.
The company announced earlier this year it planned to
invest seven billion yuan in a nationwide network with
initial capacity of two million lines, expected to expand
quickly to 10 million lines.
A November 15 Sino-US agreement on the mainland's
WTO entry allows foreign investors to hold 50 per cent
of stocks in telecommunications firms, which have so far
been barred to them.
Beijing has also promised to phase out all geographic
restrictions for mobile-cellular services in five years after
WTO accession.
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