To sharpen its competitive edge, China Unicom Corp, the country's second largest mobile phone operator, introduced two brand new wireless value-added services yesterday to the world's most populous country.

"The two services - U-Magic and U-Map mark a big step towards enriching our wireless applications and enabling our customers to have more wonderful experiences via our CDMA (code division multiple access) 1X network," said Shang Bin, vice-president of China Unicom Corp, yesterday in a press conference in Beijing.

The U-Magic service, based on BREW (binary runtime environment for wireless) or JAVA wireless technologies, enables mobile phone users to download many kinds of software to conduct online activities over handsets such as stock trading, playing games and studying.

The U-Magic service will be kicked off nationwide, he said, while for the U-Map service, it is currently available only in three cities - Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The U-Map service based on Qualcomm Inc's gpsOne (global positioning system) technology, provides navigating functions to customers.

"The service is likely to roll out nationwide at the end of the year," he said.

Li Weichong, the market director of China Unicom, said the two new services are likely to become a new revenue maker for the company.

"It may take a period of time to realize the goal but the trend is foreseeable," he said.

"As for terminals, we are in talks with several handset makers to make more terminals supporting the two new services."

Currently, there are about 20 types of handsets supporting the new services.

With increasing competition from major rivals like China Mobile and other telecom operators, China Unicom hopes the accelerated construction of its CDMA 1X network will consolidate its market share amid the fierce competition.

The two new services will have a positive impact on the growth of wireless data usage and help bolster China Unicom's average revenue per user, according to Dai Chunrong, an analyst with Huaxia Securities.

She believes that the launch of the new services will help fulfil its 2003 target of recruiting 13 million new CDMA subscribers this year. The company has recruited more than 9 million new CDMA subscribers in the first half of the year.

Industry experts believe that China Unicom will not have much difficulty in fulfilling its year-end target on the expansion of its CDMA network, given a series of promotional activities that the company has taken.

China Unicom kicked off its "U-Max" service based on the CDMA 1X network in March, which includes colourful multi-media e-mail and broadband services and interactive communications based on WAP (wireless application protocol).

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