Bracing up for China's pending activation of the third-generation telecommunications network, China United Communications Corp, the country's second largest mobile telecommunications service operator, has nearly completed the upgradation of its CDMA network to CDMA1X standard, today's Beijing Morning Post reported.

CDMA1X is a transitional technology between the 3G Code Division Multiple Access standard and the existing 2.5G technology.

On this network, all 3G telecom businesses will be enabled, including video telephonic conferencing, a typical 3G technology application service, according to Lv Jianguo, China Unicom's vice president.

Chinese CDMA users will also enjoy 3G services that are on par with their counterparts in Japan and South Korea, said an anonymous senior official, as quoted by the Beijing Youth Daily's report.

In April, the company launched a CDMA-based business that permits users to view movies on their mobile phones.

China Unicom has earmarked 28 billion yuan (US$3.4 billion) for the nationwide high-speed data and voice transmission network, which is billed as the world's largest 3G network in terms of capacity, according to its officials.

This project has taken about three years to complete since it commenced in 2001.

(eastday.com September 23, 2004)