Olympic Synergy For Telstra, Unicom

Communications Today, Nov 7, 2001

Being China's first CDMA operator is giving China Unicom [CHU] a leg up on gaining international roaming partners, while providing telecom services for the 2000 Olympics in Australia gave Telstra [TLSR] a leg up on starting to work with Unicom.

China Unicom is the country's No. 2 carrier, with 36 million customers on its GSM networks, which reach 322 cities in China. But because it also is designated by the Chinese government as the first carrier to build a CDMA network in the country, China Unicom is attracting CDMA operators in other regions as roaming partners and in service development alliances.

The first phase of China Unicom's CDMA network, which is planned to cover 300 cities with a capacity of more than 15 million users, is expected to start operating by early next year.

China and Telstra in March began discussing whether to collaborate on CDMA technologies and other business areas. The companies yesterday in Beijing said they agreed to a memorandum of understanding that outlines areas in both wireless and wireline services they will continue to address. Their cooperation will include contacts between senior executives and the establishment of working committees.

That announcement came a day after Tampa, Fla.-based TSI Telecommunication Services said it will provide international roaming services to enable China Unicom subscribers to use a single handset and mobile number on CDMA networks across the Asia-Pacific region, North America and Latin America.

Telstra's plans with China Unicom also come a year after it supplied all telecom services, including TV signal feeds as well as wireless operations, for the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney. Telstra has agreed to share its Olympic business experience with China Unicom, which will be one of the host country's telecom providers during the 2012 summer games in Beijing. >TK