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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnG who wrote (20347)	3/14/2002 10:38:44 AM
From: Caxton Rhodes	Respond to of 196770

China United Telecom Offers New Terms For Great Wall CDMA DOW JONES NEWSWIRES BEIJING -- The Beijing branch of China United Telecommunications Corp. has offered a new package of subsidies to entice users of its older code division multiple access, or CDMA , network to switch to a new, more expensive service. Under the new plan, users of the company's cheaper Great Wall CDMA service who sign up for the new CDMA service will get 600 yuan ($1=CNY8.28) worth of free airtime, according to a paid announcement in the Beijing Youth Daily. China United will give further grants of CNY300 in airtime in January, June and December of 2003. The new offer comes in response to widespread complaints by Great Wall users over the previous plan, under which China United essentially tried to force Beijing users to switch by saying it would close down the city's Great Wall network. Now, Great Wall users who don't want to switch can continue to use their existing handsets and phone numbers on the network, which serves about 550,000 users in Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an and Hebei province. More importantly, they will also continue to enjoy the current rate of CNY0.2 a minute indefinitely. China United had previously said it would begin charging Great Wall users the same CNY0.4/minute rate as other CDMA users in December 2002. State-owned China United took over the Great Wall networks from an army-backed venture in a government-ordered transaction. It originally intended to upgrade them to newer technology, but instead spent CNY24 billion building an entirely new network with nationwide coverage. The new CDMA network was launched in January, with operations in some provinces leased to its listed unit China Unicom Ltd. (CHU). But China United has had trouble attracting significant numbers of new subscribers, leading it to offer generous promotional packages. -By Andrew Batson, Dow Jones Newswires; 8610 6588-5848; andrew.batson@dowjones.com Updated March 13, 2002 10:40 p.m. EST