Subject to the other conditions to the completion of the CDMA Business disposal being satisfied, the Completion Date of the transaction will be on 1 October 2008. Upon completion, Unicom will focus on expanding its GSM business and introducing 3G services upon being granted a 3G licence.

The proposed merger between Unicom and Netcom is subject to the approval of the shareholders of Netcom who will vote on the proposed merger tomorrow.

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Unicom would like to caution readers about the forward-looking nature of some of the statements in this press release. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including future changes in our competitive and regulatory environment, future growth rates of the Chinese economy and its telecommunications industry, changes in telecommunications-related technologies and applications and other factors that will affect the execution of our business plans and strategies.

About Unicom:
Unicom was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong on 21 June 2000 and 22 June 2000 respectively. On 1 June 2001, the Company was included as a constituent stock of the Hang Seng Index.

At present, the Company is engaged in the wireless telecommunications business (both GSM and CDMA) in 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China through China Unicom Corporation Limited, the provision of international and domestic long distance calls, data and Internet services, and other related telecommunication value-added businesses.

For the first six months ended 30 June 2008, Unicom's total assets were RMB146.50 billion, net assets were RMB99.14 billion, total revenue from continuing operations was RMB35.14 billion and profit before tax from continuing operations was RMB5.13 billion. As of 30 June 2008, the Company had 127.60 million GSM subscribers and 43.17 million CDMA subscribers.