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China Telecom and China Unicom squared off in a Shanghai court yesterday over the right to publish the Yellow Pages  telephone directory.

China Telecom's local unit, Shanghai Telecom sued China Unicom claiming it had a monopoly and its rival had infringed on its right to publish and collect advertising revenue.

It asked the People's No 1 Intermediate Court to stop Unicom and order it to pay five million yuan in damages (about HK$4.6 million).

'The reckless publishing of the directory has infringed on our rights and resulted in serious damage,' Shanghai Telecom's lawyer Yang Yongtao, told a three-judge panel.

Unicom's lawyer Li Haiyan said: 'This is a dispute between monopoly and anti-monopoly interests. This could have an determining impact on the healthy development of the market.'

The four-hour hearing reached no decision and set no date for a further hearing. But it was a public display of the intensifying competition in new areas of the telecommunications sector.

Shanghai Telecom contended it had run the directory business for 18 years, invested heavily in building a telephone network and that the phone numbers were its resources.

It also alleged Unicom, which has mobile phone, long distance and Internet protocol operations but so far no Shanghai fixed-line local business, had used its information to compile the directory.

Unicom insisted the monopoly system was breaking down and it did not extend to the publishing of telephone directories. Its lawyers submitted several copies of other business directories published by trade groups and other organisations, maintaining this was proof that a monopoly no longer existed.

Unicom's lawyer likened the issue to the government's spending on gathering information for weather forecasting.

'The government does not prevent newspapers from publishing this information,' he said.

Shanghai Telecom countered that the issue was more akin to the state's handling of advertising related to the 2008 Olympics. The state would invest heavily in the infrastructure for the Games and it had the right to prevent others from taking away the advertising.

Shanghai Telecom also maintained a ruling by the Ministry of Information Industry, known as Document 275, limited Unicom's entry into the business.

The document, issued in March 2000, to protect the local phone firm from Unicom competition in Guangdong, said Unicom should not engage in this business because it was a joint venture, but it could go into areas of the mainland where it did not compete with China Telecom.

As Unicom has issued stock outside the country, it is technically seen as a joint venture.

But Shanghai Telecom has a joint venture with Bell Atlantic to handle advertising in the Yellow Pages.



China Telecom sees red over Yellow Pages