China Unicom adds 127,000 GSM users in August

Sep. 23, 2009 (China Knowledge) - China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd<600050><0762><CHU>, the country's second-largest telecom operator, said its GSM cellular service user base increased by 127,000 to 807,000 in August, sources reported.

The company also added 871,000 broadband service subscribers last month, bringing the total to 36.6 million. However, it lost 482,000 local access service users in August, reducing the total to 107.64 million.

In late August, China Unicom confirmed that it had signed a three-year deal with Apple Inc to begin selling the iPhone handset in China in the fourth quarter, ending months of speculation about the handset's official status in the world's largest handset market by users.

The company's net profit dropped 42.1% year on year to RMB 6.62 billion in the first half of this year due to the company's restructuring and fierce competition. Revenues were RMB 76.32 billion in the first half.

China Unicom aims to improve its mobile communication service in the second half and to promote its 3G service by optimizing the 3G network and launching more new products, China Knowledge reported earlier.