China Unicom, the smaller of the country's two mobile operators, expects the Chinese government to speed up the issue of 3G licences, a senior company official said on Tuesday.

Chairman Chang Xiaobing told reporters that he hoped the company would get a 3G license by year-end.

China Unicom aims to have data services account for 50 percent of revenue in future, Chang said, but did not give a time frame for the target.

Source:Reuters