China Unicom (CHU) launched its GPS service in 51 Chinese cities at the end of Spetember, and is now increasing that to hit its goal of 114 by the end of the year.

Wang Xinggang, deputy manager of China Unicom's Value-Added Services Department, has told local media that China Unicom aims to popularize CDMA navigation service across the country in 2006 and add the navigation function to all CDMA phones by the end of 2007.

China Unicom charges CNY18 per month for the navigation service.

Currently, only Samsung's W219 phone supports China Unicom's navigation service, but Wang says LG, TCL, Hisense and many other mobile phone manufacturers have agreed to supply them mobile phones that support the service.