Nicknamed "World Wind", China Unicom's launch of the phone that operates on both GSM and CDMA networks will be sold to Chinese consumers in a few months, a spokesman for Unicom says.

Phone manufacturers Motorola and Samsung are launching mass production of the phones for China Unicom, which will start procurement in January 2004.

The mobile phone can switch between networks by using two SIM cards with the advantages of the large flow of data provided by CDMA and the nationwide coverage of GSM. It is expected that users will need to maintain dual phone numbers, and whether both network modes can be used at the same time is still questionable.