Mainland mobile phone giant China Unicom is urging the Hong Kong government to speed up the controversial auction of its CDMA network licence, saying the current infrastructure, run by Hutchison Whampoa, is too old.
Chairman and chief executive Wang Jianzhou said yesterday the firm hoped to connect data roaming in Hong Kong as soon as possible.
'We very much hope to participate in the next generation CDMA market in Hong Kong,' Mr Wang said on the sidelines of a CDMA1X new business conference.
'But we want to see the network up soon - no matter who runs it.'
China Unicom, which has 23 million CDMA subscribers, is the latest company to join the chorus calling for a new CDMA network in Hong Kong.
However, it is up against the city's incumbent mobile operators, who say Hong Kong does not need a new mobile licence because there is already too much competition.
In March, the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (Ofta) proposed to auction the CDMA2000 licence, which allows users data access of a minimum of 384 kilobits per second - equivalent to third-generation (3G) speed. The watchdog has delayed its second consultation to June 19.