China Unicom, one of the nation's three leading mobile operators, started trials of its high-speed, third-generation (3G) network yesterday.

3G lets users enjoy faster wireless data downloads, make video calls and watch TV programs via mobile phones.

The trial network covers 55 cities and would expand to 284 cities by the end of September, said company president Chang Xiaobing.

He said regular service would start at year-end.

China Unicom is the last operator after China Mobile and China Telecom to start trial operation for a 3G service.

However, experts warn that the new service may not give a boost to the telecommunications market due to its high cost.

"Developing killer applications (such as the text messaging in the 2G era) is critical to spur the 3G business as people are still used to and satisfied with the dominant voice and text messaging service available in the 2G era," said Chen Jinqiao, deputy chief engineer from China Academy of Telecommunication Research.

"This is the only way the 3G business can really take off," sa  阅读全文>>