The latest from China: Unicom, Telecom buys proceed

The restructuring of China's telecom industry, after many months of speculation, is suddenly proceeding with full force. Mobile giant China Unicom announced it is acquiring wireline player China Netcom for more than $56 billion, a different approach than some had assumed would be a deal in which Netcom would buy one of Unicom's wireless networks. Meanwhile, wireline telco China Telecom confirmed it is buying two CDMA network units from China United Telecommunications and subsidiary China Unicom for a total of more than $15.8 billion. It was once thought the national-scale industry restructuring, intended to precede the introduction of 3G in China, would not happen until after the Beijing Summer Olympics. But, at this rate, with deals getting done last week and this week, much of the paperwork could be filled out and filed before any Fuwa [1] take the field.

For more:
- see this Associated Press story [2] in the New York Times

Related articles:
China set for telecom restructuring China telecom report [3]
China started the industry restructuring program last week. China report [4]