China Unicom Limited (HKG:0762) Announce Its 3G Business Development Plans For 2009

China Unicom Limited (SHA:600050)(HKG:0762)(NYSE:CHU)(PINK:CUNCF) is a leading telecommunication operator base in China with 19,500 self owned sales outlets and 87,400 cooperative independent sales outlets nationwide. The company, currently ranked as the 3rd largest mobile provider in the world, provides services in the following areas including 3G, GSM, Broadband & Data and Traditional Fixed Line Services. The company recorded a strong growth during FY 2008, EPS grew by 54% to RMB 1.43 per share, numbers of mobile subscribers also soared to 133.3 million representing a 10% increase over the last year. In January 2009, the company was granted one of the first three 3G licenses in China by the Chinese government. On 17 May 2009, the 3G service provided by China Unicom was successfully launched.

Speaking to ABN Newswire, the China Unicom Corporate Communication Team highlighted a few key points regarding their recent company business development.

MIIT vice-minister Xi Guohua said in a speech recently that China now has 670 million mobile subscribers up from 600 million since last July. The usage is currently growing at a rate of about 12% a year. However, the mobile penetration rate only stands at about 50% (670 mil/1330 mil China population). Comparing with most other developed countries where as penetration rate well exceeded 100% of the population. The telecommunication sector in China still has plenty of growth potential.

The 3G technology launched in May 2009 also represents many business opportunities for the company. The 3G technology will provide users with a more dynamic mobile phone experience with faster downloading speed and on line capacity. It is expected that the 3G technology will attract more subscribers to China Unicom service.

In FY 2009, the company plans to spend about RMB 110 billion in capital expenditure with a focus on 3G business development. The planned expenditure are RMB 38.7 billion (35.2%) on 3G business development, RMB 23.7 billion (21.5%) on GSM cellular, RMB 19.7 billion (17.9%) on Infrastructure and transmission network, RMB 18 billion (16.4%) on Broadband and data business and 9.9 billion (9%) on IT system, Innovation, Value added platform, Fixed line business and others.

While sustaining a healthy and coordinated 2G/3G development, the company is looking to roll out their 3G services in 284 cities by the end of Sept, 2009. The 3G services will be sold primarily through their self owned channels initially.
China Unicom 2009 Strategies

- Capture 3G opportunities to sustain a healthy & coordinated 2G/3G development

- Promote converged fixed line and mobile services

- Continue broadband upgrade to maintain high growth of subscribers and revenue

- Strengthen innovation to realize scale development of value added services

- Leverage multi service advantages to mitigate the decline of fixed line business

- Improve customer perception to recreate corporate brand image

About China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited

China Unicom is engaged in global system for mobile (GSM) cellular business and value-added services, fixed-line voice and value-added services, fixed-line broadband and other Internet-related services, information and communication technology (ICT) services, business and data communications services, and other related telecommunication business in 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China. During the year ended December 31, 2008, the Company had general packet radio service (GPRS) international inbound roaming services with 133 operators from 69 countries and had GPRS international outbound roaming services with 46 operators from 27 countries. As of December 31, 2008, the Company had a total number of 31.223 million GPRS subscribers.

 

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China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited