China Unicom, the other mainland mobile operator after China Mobile, yesterday said it is not in talks with China Telecom, the country's largest fixed-line operator, on the sale of its CDMA mobile network. Speculation reignited over the weekend that China Telecom, which has expressed its intention to expand into mobile business over the past two years, is in talks to buy China Unicom's CDMA network. 'We strongly deny the rumour on the sale of our CDMA network. We are neither in talks nor in preparation for such [a deal],' a China Unicom spokesman said, adding management is confident about the CDMA business. The company believes its CDMA business has good prospects and business opportunities with international partners. China Unicom, which also operates a GSM network, has 35 million CDMA users by the end of August this year. It formed an alliance recently with South Korea's SK Telecom to jointly source CDMA handsets to cut costs. China Telecom, under the leadership of former China Mobile chairman Wang Xiaochu, is seeking to tap the mobile business to help sustain growth as mainlanders shift from fixed lines to mobile phones. A source said China Telecom is preparing for the launch of its mobile business using Europe-based GSM and WCDMA technologies rather than the United States-based CDMA. 'The wireless department of China Telecom has put lots of effort into GSM and WCDMA network services, but not into the CDMA network,' the source said.
