After many local media yesterday published a report that said China Unicom and China Netcom would merge, today top management from China Unicom are denying the rumor.

The reports quoted an industry insider who said the merger of the two businesses would produce a combined annual revenue of CNY170 billion.

China Unicom instead says it is soon to implement a new round of market strategy that was planned a while ago, and that it has no intention to merge.

China Netcom has not publicly confirmed or denied the report.