Chinese telecom operator China Unicom recently announced that the company's net profit was expected to increase by over 50% for the year of 2012.

The company said that the net profit growth was mainly attributed to the growth of 3G and broadband users. In 2011, China Unicom realized net profit of CNY1.412 billion and basic earnings of CNY0.0666 per share.

According to the financial report published by China Unicom, its revenue from the 3G mobile business was CNY42.72 billion, accounting for 45.9% of its total revenue. The ratio was 29.2% in the same period of last year. China Unicom's 3G users reached 76.456 million by the end of December 2012, while the number of its broadband users reached 63.87 million.

At present, another Chinese major telecom operator China Mobile is accelerating its development of 4G wireless technology, and the commercial trial of a 4G network is expected to be launched in Hangzhou and Wenzhou around the Chinese New Year. Commenting on this situation, an insider from China Unicom said that though the deployment of TD-LTE network has quickened in China, China Unicom's operating advantages in 3G network will still be obvious in the short-term. Even in the 4G age, their FDD industry chain will maintain significant technical advantages.