China Unicom sets 70 bln yuan 3-year CDMA budget
SHANGHAI, March 29 (Reuters) - China Unicom Group's total investment in its long-awaited CDMA mobile phone network will
total 70 billion yuan (US$8.46 billion) over three years, the official China Daily reported on Thursday.
The newspaper did not cite a source in its report but added that China Unicom would spend 20 billion yuan his year on the CDMA
network, echoing statements made earlier this week by officials with the telecom group's Hong Kong listed unit, China Unicom Ltd .
China Unicom Group unveiled the project's specifications to prospective equipment suppliers on Wednesday, taking a concrete step
toward building China's first nationwide mobile network using Qualcomm Inc's (NasdaqNM:QCOM - news) CDMA technology.
China Daily said the bidding on contracts for the project has been opened to 12 companies, including four joint ventures with foreign
partners and eight domestic companies.
The international vendors included Lucent Technologies Inc (NYSE:LU - news), Nortel Networks (Toronto:NT.TO - news),
Motorola Inc (NYSE:MOT - news) and Ericsson , an official with a foreign company invited to bid said on Tuesday.
China Daily also named those four and added that South Korea's Samsung Group would form an alliance with one of the domestic
equipment providers.
``Domestic companies will be considered first,'' the newspaper quoted China Unicom vice president Wang Jianzhou as saying. ``At
least 10 of the 12 bidders will be selected, as the construction project is huge.''
It said top domestic contenders include Datang Telecom & Tech Co Ltd , Huawei Technologies Co and Shenzhen Zhongxing
Telecom Co Ltd (ZTE) .
The nationwide network will cover 300 cities and is expected to attract 13.3 million customers this year, with growth of more than 10
million subscribers a year, the newspaper said. China Unicom has set up a subsidiary, Unicom Horizon Communications, to handle
the network's construction.
CDMA is a mobile phone technology that allows phone companies to cram more calls and information across limited airwaves than
competing GSM (global system for mobile communications), the more established standard promoted by European firms.
Qualcomm has been waiting for years to crack the China wireless market and has seen its shares driven up and down by see-saw
statements by Chinese regulators and Unicom officials on near term CDMA deployment plans in the mainland.
Qualcomm owns patents on the CDMA or code division multiple access wireless technology and earns royalties from sales of
CDMA network equipment and handsets.
China Unicom shares in Hong Kong were off 0.58 percent at HK$8.50 following Pacific Century CyberWorks' disappointing results
and a tumble on Wall Street.
Qualcomm shares ended down US$5-1/16 at US$54-13/16 on Wednesday.
(US$1 equals 8.277 Yuan)
Wednesday March 28, 11:24 pm Eastern Time
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