China Unicom (Hong Kong), the country's second-biggest wireless network operator, expects rapid subscriber growth in the next few months will help it surpass its goal of 25 million new 3G users this year.
Beijing-based Unicom, the sole carrier-partner for Apple's iPhone on the mainland, also hinted that it could pursue a new financing initiative this year amid its hefty capital spending programme.
Senior management addressed those developments yesterday following the operator's annual general meeting in Hong Kong.
'We're fully confident of acquiring more subscribers than we targeted,' Unicom president Lu Yimin said. 'We have some new measures and packages that would help acquire more subscribers.'
The carrier is offering a plan of 66 yuan (HK$79) a month for the iPhone, down from 96 yuan.
Unicom started the year with 14.1 million 3G users. It added 1.85 million in March and 1.82 million last month to push its total to 20.35 million.