Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news
China United Telecommunications Corp, the third largest telecom operator
in China, will likely echo its key rival China Mobile Communications Corp's
policy this year to gain strict control of investments to improve
profitability.
Chang Xiaobing, China Unicom's president, unveiled this as
one of the key tasks for 2007 at a yearly work meeting during January 17 to 19
in Beijing, Sina.com reported today, citing a close source to the
company.
Senior officials with the group's regional branches attended the
meeting. A day before that, China Mobile announced the same investment control
policy for 2007.
The coinstantaneous adoption of the investment control
policy has been taken by the market as aĦ°bad signĦħof the limited development of
China's telecom market for the year, particularly with the Code Division
Multiple Access (CDMA) sector.
A rumor has circulated on the market that
China Unicom, the only operator of CDMA networks in China, will transfer some of
the CDMA network to China Telecommunications Corp., the country's No. 1 telecom
operator, to shed some of the financial burden.
The CDMA service was
never in the black until 2006, when its subscribers shot up to 36 million
nationwide, according to the Sina report.
