As China Unicom has officially delivered its CDMA network and related business to China Telecom under the national telecom restructuring plan, it will from now on keep its focus on GSM and upgrade its GSM network to WCDMA, even though it is far from accessing the 3G licenses.

Some reports previously said that China Unicom would invite bidding for the WCDMA equipment procurement before the National Day. Latest news indicates that telecom equipment providers will take part in the bidding on October 8.

By the end of June 2008, 233 WCDMA networks had been set up globally. The number of WCDMA subscribers had hit 253 million. WCDMA is the most successful 3G standard for now. And the competition in this area is fiercer. Ericsson, Nokia Siemens, and Huawei are all strong performers in WCDMA equipment manufacturing.

This time Motorola and Nortel will not take part in the bidding, according to insiders in the know.

Source:SinoCast