China Unicom will invest more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.63 billion) in Shanghai over the next three years until 2016 to help local smart city construction, the company and the city government said yesterday.
The investment will focus on building information infrastructure, development of new IT applications, and construction of mobile Internet and IT in the city's free trade zone, they said.
China Unicom will also invest in the 4G network, fiber optic broadband and other IT infrastructure in the FTZ and the Hongqiao commercial area.
Also yesterday, China Unicom and ZTE signed a deal with Tencent Inc to offer services and system for the Shenzhen-based tech giant which has more than 600 million QQ and WeChat users.
Even before China Unicom's agreement with the city, China Telecom had opened a branch office in the FTZ to provide various services for enterprises in the zone.
Telecom carriers are being forced to develop value-added services to boost revenue and profit as income from traditional services like voice and short message declines, analysts said.