A China Unicom  insider says that the new Unicom will not distinguish between fixed-line networks and mobile networks in its corporate structure, but will rather reorganize existing departments based on overall service requirements. The source predicted that the majority of employees at Unicom's headquarters would likely be laid off, possibly by adding new departments and then making further fine-tuned headcount adjustments.

China Unicom and China Netcom  have 27 and 21 functional departments at the moment, and employ 500 and 700 people, respectively, at their headquarters. Half, or more, of the companies' departments will be merged.

Source:CCID