China Unicom says that it will have 259 million subscribers after the merger with China Netcom, which will consist of 128 million GSM users, 109 million fixed line telephone users and 23.36 million broadband users.

What is more, the self-run sales outlets will top 18,000 after the merger, of which 5,000 will belong to China Unicom and 13,000 for China Netcom. The new company will have about 170,000 mobile base stations and 430,000 PHS base stations.

Chang Xiaobing will take the office of chairman of the new company after the merger and current senior executives of China Netcom will be the new management of the new company.

In terms of a statement made by China Unicom, investment in mobile telecom service is expected to increase 100% in 2008 from the original plan of China Unicom. And the new company will invest CNY 100 billion in 3G mobile telecom service in the coming two years.

Source:SinoCast