China Unicom Henan branch introduced the progress of its GSM network expansion in a press conference held in Zhengzhou and announced plans to invest another CNY3 billion to improve its GSM network.

The project started this time is the 16th stage project of Henan China Unicom's GSM network expansion. In the former 15 stages, Henan China Unicom invested a total of CNY10 billion and built more than 10,000 base stations. In 2008, Henan China Unicom will invest another CNY3 billion to enlarge the coverage of its GSM network and to upgrade the network. Over the year 2008, the company plans to build more than 5,000 new base stations, of which more than 3,000 have been completed so far.

In the GSM network expansion project of 2008, Henan China Unicom's goal is to improve the network and the call quality and to further enlarge the coverage of the network. While constructing the network across the province, Henan China Unicom also focuses on some major cities. Of these cities, Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of Henan, is given the top priority. At present, there are more than 600 newly opened base stations in the city and the number will be increase to more than 1,700 by the end of 2008. With the completions of these base stations, the network coverage of Henan China Unicom in Zhengzhou will be increased to 40%, which will ensure the high quality and the free flow of communications.

Startin from 2007, Henan China Unicom accelerated the improvement of its GPRS services. By May 2008, its GPRS services, including WAP, Java and MMS, have been opened in all the 17 cities across Henan Province. In addition, its multimedia message service has realized inter-communication with the CDMA network of China Unicom and the GSM network of China Mobile.