China Unicom has built the fastest mobile data network in China. Now all the company needs is customers to use it.
The mainland's second-largest mobile phone carrier is looking to promote data usage for its advanced but underutilised CDMA 1x network, which is capable of supporting 50 million users but has less than half that number.
Many customers talk over the network but not much else - despite download speeds of about 40 to 60 kilobits per second. The 2.5-generation GPRS network operated by rival China Mobile offers speeds of less than 20kbps.
Chairman Wang Jianzhou finds it frustrating that consumers cannot differentiate between the two services.
'Because most people are using it for voice and text messaging, people can't tell the difference,' he said. He attributed the lack of interest to a scarcity of compelling content.
'The problem our CDMA network faces is there are not enough wireless data applications and services to stimulate use,' he said. The company had about four million CDMA data subscribers, who contributed about 6 per cent of its CDMA revenue.