Following the separation of its CDMA and GSM network operation in January, China Unicom (CHU) has now appointed deputy executives for the two independent networks.

The company has appointed its vice president Yang Xiaowei to be responsible for CDMA network development and operation, and Li Gang, another vice president who has hopped from China Mobile, to take charge of the GSM network.

China Unicom passed a resolution at its January 17-19 work conference to separate the operation of its CDMA network and GSM network. The company plans to have all departments and personnel for the two networks be in place before March 15, 2007.

Apart from the two deputy executives, China Unicom has also named some other managerial positions for the respective network. Zhang Mingtian has been appointed as director, and Li Xiaomin and Zhou Xiaoping as deputy directors of C network's operation department. Former general manager of the Marketing Department Xie Guoqing has been named director, and former deputy manager of Value-added Service Department Song Limei and Jiang Dajun as deputy director of GSM network' Marketing Department. Tong Xiaoyu has been appointed to work as director of China Unicom's new Value-added Service Department.

In response to public's concern that China Unicom's C and G networks will struggle with each other after this new appointment as the two executives used to be rivals, Yang Xiaowei says that this won't happen as the company has already made adjustments to its brands so that there won't be much conflict between the two networks.