China Unicom Said to Start WCDMA Commerce Bidding Invitation

China Unicom is to kick off WCDMA commerce bidding invitation, a well-informed person disclosed on January 8, 2009.

Direct investment in 3G will amount to CNY 280 billion or so in 2009-2010, said Li Yizhong, head for China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). China Unicom brews to inject about CNY 100 billion into the WCDMA network construction project, which covers more than 200 cities and encompasses nearly 70,000 base stations.

The telecoms operator started to invite bidding for the WCDMA equipment procurement in October 2008. Six equipment manufacturers, including Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Shanghai Bell, Huawei Technologies, ZTE Corporation, and Guangzhou New Postcom Equipment Co., Ltd. offered their biddings.

WCDMA is one of the four global 3G standards affirmed by the International Telecommunication Union. Japanese telecoms carrier NIT DoCoMo started the world's first WCDMA commercial network in 2001.