Managed services agreement will allow Fujian Unicom to focus on strengthening services and subscriber developments in Xiamen and Nanping

Shanghai, May 24, 2011 – Fujian Unicom – a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Unicom – has selected Alcatel-Lucent to manage its mobile and fixed networks in the booming cities of Xiamen and Nanping in south-east China.

Both cities are popular destinations for tourists and business visitors, adding further demand to the current explosion in Chinese broadband traffic driven by new applications and services, such as mobile gaming, video and social networking. The agreement between the companies will enable Fujian Unicom and its parent company to reduce operation cost and focus on developing attractive new consumer services, while Alcatel-Lucent will take a broader role in the delivery of high-quality networks and services to millions of customers in Fujian.

“This agreement reinforces Alcatel-Lucent’s position as a long-term, trusted partner to China Unicom, the world’s largest 3G W-CDMA mobile operator,” said Rajeev Singh-Molares, President, Asia Pacific, Alcatel-Lucent of Alcatel-Lucent. “With our extensive experience of multi-vendor network maintenance, Alcatel-Lucent will become a single point of contact for maintaining Fujian Unicom’s networks in Xiamen and Nanping, helping reduce the complexity and costs associated with managing large networks on this scale. This strengthens our position as a leader in managed services in China and underlines our strong local presence through Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, our Chinese flagship company.”

Alcatel-Lucent currently provides management to more than 100 networks, supporting more than 250 million subscribers in the process. Major customers include E-Plus, Oi (formerly Brasil Telecom), Mobily, Telecom New Zealand, Orange Austria, Orange Switzerland, Reliance, Sunrise Switzerland, Bharti Airtel and Vivacom.

About China Unicom
China United Network Communications Group Co.,Ltd (“China Unicom”) was officially established on 6 January 2009 on the basis of the merger of former China Netcom and former China Unicom. It has subsidiaries in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across China and many countries and regions around the world. It is the only Chinese telecom operator listed on the stock exchanges in New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai. As of the end of 2008, the total assets of the Company reached 500.09 billion yuan and the number of employees stood at 463,000. With a modern communications network characterized by nationwide coverage and global reach, China Unicom mainly operates fixed and mobile communications service, domestic and international communications facilities, satellite IPLC service, data communications service, network access service, value-added telecom services and system integration service related to information and communications services. On 7 January 2009, China Unicom was granted a WCDMA license. If you would like to know more about the Company, please visit www.chinaunicom.com.