(SinoCast via NewsEdge) China Unicom and SK Telecom agreed to jointly buy millions of mobile phones betting the two companies' increased purchasing power will reduce costs.
The two mobile phone operators are negotiating to buy mobile phones from Motorola, Samsung, and LG Electronics, Seoul-based SK Telecom said in a statement.
The mobile phones will be offered to both companies' customers during the first half of next year, the statement said.
SK Telecom, the world's first provider of third-generation mobile services, joins Spain's Telefonica and the UK's Vodafone Group in trying to access a market that has more mobile phone users than the combined populations of the US and Japan.
Beijing-based China Unicom will use the partnership to boost buying power and tap SK Telecom's experience providing 3G service.
'This is pretty positive for China Unicom in the long-term; it means more purchasing power,' said Judy Zhang, an analyst at Sun Hung Kai Research in Hong Kong.
China Unicom and SK Telecom plan to initially buy six types of mobile phones, with orders for each model ranging from 300,000 to 500,000 mobile phones, according to the statement.
In July, SK Telecom, Korea's largest cell phone operator, bought $1 billion of bonds convertible into a 6.7% stake of the Chinese company.
China's number of mobile users is expected to rise to 568.1 million in 2010, according to US researcher IDC.
China had 437.5 million cell phone subscribers at the end of August, according to government data, compared with South Korea's 38 million.
About 30% of China's 1.3 billion people own mobile phones, compared with South Korea's 80%.
© SinoCast
© 2006 Dialog, a Thomson business. All rights reserved