China Unicom has introduced automobile-based CDMA mobile phone voice and map navigation GPS systems.

Zhai Yibing, deputy managing director of China Unicom's Value-added Service Department, disclosed to the local media that China Unicom had already started trial operation of the service and was expecting to put it into commercial use before this year's National Day holiday.

According to a preliminary plan of China Unicom, the cost for the navigation service is divided into two parts, namely, monthly rent which is temporarily set as CNY18/month, and an online bandwidth fee which is priced at CNY35/month.

China Unicom has chosen Samsung's W219 mobile phone, which is priced at around CNY4000, for the new service.