At a recent gathering of industry experts, ZTE Senior Vice President Mr. Xie Daxiong outlined his vision of the future of wireless communications, and examined the possibilities for the integration of WiMAX broadband access with 3G cellular service.

Mr. Xie also predicted that the separation of network operation and service provision would boost the commercialization of many new value-added wireless services. He was speaking at a recent workshop commemorating China Unicom´s establishment of its new Science and Technology Committee.

In an address entitled ¡®Mobile Network´s Development and Evolution', Mr Xie described existing wireless networks in terms of their historic development and their likely evolution over the next 3 to 5 years. Alongside network and service separation he forecast that the wireless side of the CDMA2000 system would develop technically towards a much improved bearer platform, and that value-added services would become the main source of China Unicom´s future revenues.

China Unicom´s Science and Technology Committee consists of four professional groups: mobile communications, network communications, information and applications, and economy and administration. It is anticipated that the work of the committee will greatly boost China Unicom´s core technical competencies.