The two companies will invest 29 million U.S. dollars in research, development, manufacturing and marketing of CDMA mobile phones and related products.

　　They have set up a joint laboratory in Shanghai specializing in CDMA research and development.

　　China Unicom, the second biggest mobile telecommunications operator in China, plans to market CDMA mobile phones and provide related services on January 1 next year in 360 cities nationwide, with the number of subscribers at the initial stage targeted at 15 million.

　　It is estimated that China Unicom's CDMA mobile phone subscribers will account for about half of China's mobile phone users by 2003.

　　The number of mobile phone users in China now has topped 120 million, making China the world's largest mobile telecommunication market.