Chang Xiaobing, chairman and CEO of China Unicom, has stated that he expected the Chinese government to speed up the issuing of 3G licenses. Once a W-CDMA (UMTS), one of the international 3G standards, license is issued to China Unicom, they will start testing their 3G network in seven Chinese cities by the end of this year, Beijing Times reported.

Yesterday, a source from China Unicom said that the company will set up trial W-CDMA networks in seven Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Shenzhen, Foshan, Liuzhou, Zhengzhou, Baoding and Wuxi, with about 100 W-CDMA base stations in each city. Meanwhile, Shanghai Unicom, Shenzhen Unicom and Wuxi Unicom were reported to have already begun works on the trial W-CDMA networks and base stations.

The first W-CDMA network of China Unicom is expected to begin its trial run on December 31. China Unicom’s customers in Wuxi can apply to participate in the W-CDMA trial program through SMS.

It is expected that China Unicom will begin to build its W-CDMA networks in major Chinese cities as soon as it secures the license from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Another source from China Unicom said that the company plans to complete their 3G network construction in major Chinese cities in the first two quarters of next year and extend their 3G network coverage to medium sized cities in China before the end of next year.

(China Daily November 25, 2008)