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Monday, May 20, 2:03 PM Apple (AAPL +1.9%) roundup: 1) Brian White cites Chinese 3G growth as a reason for his $888 PT: he points out China's 3G sub base rose 83% Y/Y in April to 293.1M, and is expected to hit 375M-400M by year's end. China Mobile (CHL - previous) had 120M 3G subs; China Unicom (CHU) had 92M, and China Telecom (CHA) 81M. 2) Taiwan's Economic Times reports Apple is testing 1.5" OLED displays for an iWatch, and that "market rumors" indicate Foxconn has received iWatch trial production orders. 3) Digitimes reports MacBook orders are expected to grow 20% Q/Q in Q2, as Apple launches new systems sporting Intel Haswell CPUs at June's WWDC conference. 17 Comments [Tech]
Wednesday, May 8, 12:40 PM The Chinese government is expected to issue 4G TD-LTE licenses by year's end, writes Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty in a bullish note on Apple (AAPL +1.2%). The licenses could pave the way for China Mobile (CHL), which has 700M+ subs and is spending $6.75B this year on its TD-LTE network (still in trial mode), to begin selling the iPhone. One potential roadblock: China Unicom (CHU) and China Telecom (CHA) want the government to take its time in issuing TD-LTE licenses. CHA wants to delay its 4G capex, and both carriers are supporting the FDD-LTE standard (far more popular outside of China). (AAPL/CHL agreement) 6 Comments [Tech]
Tuesday, May 7, 1:37 PM Sina (SINA -2.5%) gives back yesterday's gains after Tencent (TCEHY.PK) says it has reached "preliminary solutions" with Chinese mobile carriers (CHL, CHU, CHA) regarding its very popular WeChat mobile IM platform, which both generates heavy traffic and eats into text-messaging revenue (China Mobile's text revenue fell 4.8% last year). That's likely raising fears Sina might have to pay carriers for the traffic produced by Weibo, arguably WeChat's top rival. Tencent has said it's unlikely to charge WeChat users. Comment! [Tech, On the Move]
Thursday, April 25, 5:57 AM China Unicom (CHU): Q1 Net profit of 1.9B yuan (+89% Y/Y). Comment! [Earnings, Breaking News]
Tuesday, April 16, 6:28 PM Get used to slowing China growth, J.P. Morgan says in noting disappointing GDP data "underscore the challenge facing an economy burdened with overcapacity.” While Chinese stocks are cheap at 9.7x 2013 earnings, the weak data suggests earnings estimates might be too high. The firm thinks investors in China should stick with defensive stocks such as Sinopec (SNP) and China Unicom (CHU). Comment! [Global & FX, Quick Ideas]
Monday, April 8, 12:33 PM After a Chinese government official suggested Tencent (TCEHY.PK) will "have to pay fees" to mobile carriers (CHA, CHL, CHU) for the use of its extremely popular WeChat mobile IM/social networking platform, Tencent tells its users it's unlikely to charge for WeChat. Much like their European peers, Chinese carriers have seen their text messaging revenue pressured by the adoption on Web-based services such as WeChat. Sina (SINA) recently admitted WeChat, which now has 300M+ registered accounts, has been affecting Weibo usage. Comment! [Tech]
Friday, March 22, 3:00 AM China Unicom Hong Kong (CHU): Q4 net profit jumps to 1.64B yuan ($264M) from 14M yuan a year earlier and beats consensus of 1.41B yuan. Revenue +20% to 63.7B yuan vs estimates of 65.5B yuan. Had 76.5M 3G subscribers at the end of December and total mobile customers of 239.3M. Shares +4.6% in Hong Kong. (PR) Comment! [Earnings, Tech, Consumer]
Wednesday, March 6, 6:31 PM After expanding the reach of its fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network by 33M households in 2012, China Telecom (CHA) wants to expand it by another 25M in 2013. Rival China Unicom (CHU) is also aggressive: it brought its FTTH network to 15.2M new households last year, and wants to add 10M this year. CHA and CHU respectively added 15.7M and 8.2M broadband subs in 2012, and hope to add 15M and 9M in 2013. With China now sporting over 1.1B mobile subs, CHA and CHU are increasingly counting on broadband and 3G data services to drive growth. Comment! [Tech]
Wednesday, March 6, 4:56 AM China plans to issue 4G network licenses by the end of 2013, Industry & Information Technology Minister Miao Wei has said. "China has made breakthroughs in R&D of 4G technologies, but is still facing restrictions in commercial use," Miao said. China Mobile (CHL) has already begun 4G trials in several Chinese cities. 3 Comments [Tech, Consumer]
Wednesday, January 9, 1:39 PM The Chinese government is thinking of opening the country's mobile market up to virtual carriers (MVNOs) who would offer services based on capacity leased from incumbents China Mobile (CHL), China Unicom (CHU), and China Telecom (CHA). Such a policy change could open up a lucrative new revenue stream for the incumbents and perhaps (thanks to new pricing models) stoke 3G/data services adoption, but also carries the risk of increasing price competition. 2 Comments [Tech]
Friday, December 28, 2012, 1:24 PM China's telecom ministry says it will "earnestly complete the preparatory work for [4G] LTE frequency distribution and license-granting" in 2013. Does that mean 4G licenses will be issued at least on the early side of the 2014-2015 timeframe government officials have suggested? China Mobile (CHL), which is building a huge 4G trial network, must hope so. So must base station supplier Alcatel-Lucent and 4G baseband chipmakers Qualcomm and Sequans. Comment! [Tech]
Wednesday, December 26, 2012, 5:52 PM Just days after China Mobile began selling Nokia's (NOK) Lumia 920T, a leaked pricing chart suggests rival China Unicom (CHU) will soon begin offering the regular Lumia 920. According to the chart, the 920 will cost CNY4,599 ($738) unsubsidized, but will be available for free in exchange for a 3-year contract for a plan costing $46/month or more, or a 2-year contract for a plan costing $62/month or more - for reference, Unicom's 3G services ARPU only amounted to $14.25 in Q3. 23 Comments [Tech]
Wednesday, December 19, 2012, 5:56 PM China Unicom (CHU) added 3.25M users to its 3G network in November, increasing its total to over 73M. That's roughly even with the 3.2M added in October, and likely a sign of further 3G share gains. The fact CHU is the only Chinese carrier to use the widely-adopted W-CDMA 3G standard gives it an edge in phone selection. CHU has said it expects to sell 140M 3G phones next year - those sales benefit Qualcomm, which collects royalties on them (unlike with 2G-only phones). Bigger rival China Mobile (CHL) expects to sell 100M+ TD-SCDMA 3G phones in 2013. Comment! [Tech]
Sunday, December 16, 2012, 9:23 PM Over 2M iPhone 5 units have been sold thus far in China, Apple (AAPL) boasts. China Unicom's (CHU) healthy pre-order activity probably had a lot to do with this figure. Sparse crowds for the Friday launch stoked fears initial sales were light, but weather and pre-ordering requirements seem to have played a role. For reference, Apple announced in September over 5M iPhone 5 units had been sold 3 days after the device went on sale in the U.S., Japan, and 7 other locales. (PR) 56 Comments [Tech]
Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 11:05 AM Apple (AAPL +3.1%) has bounced to $546 with the help of positive analyst commentary. While Morgan Stanley talks up potential iTV interest, JPMorgan is raising its forecast for Q4 AT&T (T) iPhone activations to 8M from 7M. Also, ISI's Brian Marshall is expecting a strong Chinese iPhone 5 launch - China Unicom (CHU) just announced its pre-orders have topped 300K. (Apple Monitor) 21 Comments [Tech, On the Move, Quick Ideas]
Friday, December 7, 2012, 4:09 PM Days after Nokia (NOK) announced China Mobile would sell two Windows Phone 8 models, Microsoft (MSFT) has announced a Windows Phone partnership with China Unicom (CHU). Analysts estimate WP accounted for only 3% of the Chinese smartphone market in Q3, ahead of the WP8 launches. Separately, Microsoft says it's launching 14 innovation centers in India this week to create a larger base of technical workers familiar with its software, and wants to launch 100 in the country over the next 2 years. Comment! [Tech]

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China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited