Chinese telecoms titan China Telecom Corporation Ltd. (NYSE: CHA, SEHK: 0728) will build 500 3G cell towers totally along with its domestic peer China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. (NYSE: CHU, SEHK: 0762, SHSE: 600050) in Shanghai this year, according to an agreement signed recently by the Shanghai branches under the two parties.
The deal will save total investments of CNY 200 million, construction investments of CNY 100 million, 20,000 square meters of land, and 1 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, said the Shanghai branch under China Telecom.
A person in the know hoped that they could extend their cooperation in more fields besides the 3G wireless cell tower construction in the future.
China's telecoms revenue was predicted to increase 4% in 2009, lower than the nation's GDP growth in that year, citing a data report released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China.
The nation's Big Three telecoms operators had totally finished direct-investments of CNY 160.9 billion in the 3G network construction by the end of 2009. They had built 325,000 3G cell towers in all by 2009-end. And the nation's 3G user base is predicted to hit 15 million in 2010.
