China Unicom is scheduled to kick off WCDMA commercial use in 55 cities on May 17, the World Telecom Day, and expand the 3G service coverage to 284 cities before the year-end, Chang Xiaobing, board chairman of the telecom carrier, said on February 19 at the Mobile World Congress 2009 held in Barcelona.
Before the Spring Festival, China Unicom had accomplished its WCDMA bid invitation. Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. and Motorola jointly won a 30.6% share; Ericsson, FiberHome Telecommunication Technologies Co., Ltd. (SHSE: 600498), and Guangzhou New Postcom Equipment Co., Ltd. a 26.5% share; ZTE Corporation (SZSE: 000063 and SEHK: 0763) a 21.5% share; Nokia and Siemens a 11.1% share, according to the bidding result.

China Unicom will use high speed packet access (HSPA) technology for its 3G networks, explained Mr. Chang, adding that 80,000 base stations will be built this year and the WCDMA networks in 284 cities will cover 74% of the country's population.