China United Communications Corporation (Unicom Group), parent company of China Unicom, plans to invest 30 billion yuan on GSM network expansion this year, revealed Li Gang, vice president of the group.

Coverage of Unicom Group's GSM network was far smaller than that of China Mobile Communications Corporation (CMCC) when it operated CDMA and GSM networks at the same time.

China Mobile currently has 307,000 GSM base stations and a coverage rate of 98 percent, compared to China Unicom's 150,000 and 84 percent respectively.

After the issuance of 3G license, which means China Unicom would sell its CDMA network to China Telecom, the company's focus will shift to WCDMA, Li said.

Unicom Group has announced previously that it would increase 2008's capex from 30.95 billion yuan to 47.25 billion to improve coverage and services of GSM network.

Li added that they will roll out FMC (Fixed Mobile Convergence) services after the completion of China's telecom industrial reshuffle at the earliest.

Source:Xinhua