China Telecom to launch CDMA next March

China Telecom, the country’s largest fixed-line operator, said it would trial mobile services as early as October on the CDMA network it acquired from China Unicom in a  CNY110 billion (US$16.11 billion) deal.

China Telecom said it would also invest CNY80 billion in upgrading the CDMA network over three years. It plans to launch commercial services in late March 2009 under the China Telecom brand, while China Unicom will continue to provide mobile services on its GSM networks.

China Telecom will gain 43.1 million CDMA subscribers from China Unicom.

The agreements were signed in recent days, which also sees 43.1 million subscribers and 30 per cent of China Unicom’s employees transferring to China Telecom.

The sale of China Unicom’s CDMA business is part of a broader telecommunications shuffle in the country, and also involved the GSM operator acquiring fixed-line provider China Netcom in a US$56.34 billion share swap deal.