China set for telecom shake-up

The news reports seemed to be changing in tone by the hour, but according to some filed this morning U.S. time, the Chinese government may be nearing a restructuring of the nation's telecom industry that would see No. 2 mobile carrier China Unicom have its GSM and CDMA wireless businesses separated. The GSM business likely would be merged with wireline telco China Telecom and the CDMA business merged with fellow telco China Netcom. Top mobile player China Mobile would round out a new three-horse competitive race.

An industry restructuring has been rumored for months and even as recently as this morning, various reports out of China debated how soon it will happen. Some say it's imminent or will happen in March, others say it's doubtful to happen before the completion of the Beijing Olympics later this year.

For more:
- see this report at Forbes