According to Telefonica, the leading telecommunications operator in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world, the company has completed its stock swap with the Chinese telecom operator China Unicom.

China Unicom and Telefonica have agreed both to cooperate in various business areas such as joint acquisitions and to push forward a share swap.

While China Mobile and China Telecom are promoting their own respective mobile phone applications online stores, China Unicom has also announced plans to set up a similar online store, targeting WCDMA handsets.

Chang Xiaobing, chairman of China Unicom, said while attending the recent China IT Leaders & CEO Shenzhen Summit 2009 that the negotiation between Apple and China Unicom for the introduction of iPhone into China is still ongoing and the result of the negotiation is also an open question.

Just days after China Unicom denied rumors of a deal, new reports in Chinese media state China Unicom has finally reached an agreement with Apple to introduce Apple's 3G iPhone into China and the two companies will formally announce the news on May 17, the World Telecommunication Day.

Just days after China Mobile's negotiations stalled with Apple, an insider from China Unicom has confirmed that China Unicom has started negotiations with Apple for iPhone's entry into the Chinese mobile market.

China Unicom has published its operating statistics for November 2008, which state the number of its GSM mobile phone users increased by 996,000 during the month, reaching an accumulated number of 133 million users.

Chinese electronics retailer Gome has officially suspended the administrative duties of its chairman Huang Guangyu.

China Unicom (CHU) has started the deployment of its WCDMA trial networks and it plans to set up the networks first in seven Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Shenzhen, Foshan, Liuzhou, Zhengzhou, Baoding and Wuxi.