The number of China Unicom (600050, 0762.HK) 3G users grew by 1.41 million year-on-year to 15.47 million as of January 31, reports Investor China, citing a company release. By that date, the number of Unicom 2G users had increased by 825,000 to 154.19 million.
At present, China Unicom has over one million iPhone users. Its chairman, Chang Xiaobing, said the company has no timetable to introduce the iPad2, but it believes that Apple will cooperate with China Unicom on the issue.
China Unicom estimates that its 2010 net profit attributable to shareholders may have dropped by more than 50 percent due to the high subsidy granted on 3G mobile users. China Unicom s 3G license allows it a downlink rate of 7.2Mbps while its competitors, China Telecom (0728.HK) and China Mobile (0941.HK), got only 3.1Mbps and 2.8Mbps.
