Motorola gets China Unicom contract

PHILADELPHIA: Wireless technology company Motorola Inc. said it had been selected by China United Telecommunications Corp. (China Unicom) for a project that will expand the telephone services company's networks in 11 provinces.

The equipment would help China Unicom offer better voice calls, high-speed multimedia services and wireless applications to its customers, said Motorola, which has been the company's largest wireless-system supplier since 1994.

China Unicom awarded Motorola multiple contracts, totaling $344 million of orders, during the past six months. Motorola said it already reported about $271 million of those revenues and will record the remaining sales in the fourth quarter.

Motorola said the equipment for the advanced wireless network already has been deployed and is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2004. It will expand network coverage and allow China Unicom to transmit more calls and handle more subscribers, Motorola said.

China Unicom currently has over 110 million subscribers networks nationwide.