China Unicom will at the soonest kick off WCDMA network construction at the end of this year and is scheduled to invite bidding for WCDMA equipment procurement contracts in this November, according to an executive from the telecom carrier.

First it will set up WCDMA network in some provinces in Southern China and then extend it nationwide, according to previous reports. However, the executive says that China Unicom will start networking around the country at the same time.

China Unicom requests that all of its provincial branches can only procure telecom equipments that work both for 2G and 3G standards. These equipments can be upgraded to WCDMA directly. That means once China Unicom gets the 3G license, its branches will kick off WCDMA-based 3G services immediately.

At the moment, branches of China Unicom in Jiangsu and Ningxia are providing their employees with 3G networking construction training courses.

Source:SinoCast via