Unicom embraces WiMAX Yes or Not

3/13/2007，This is an inside story. China Unicom has decided to launch WiMAX building, also they have choosed the equipment suppliers. The related proposals have been distributed to Unicom's branches in each province.
After a nearly 1 year trial on WiMAX, Unicom got below conclusions: "As an fixed wireless broadband acess system, 802.16d WiMAX has good communication quality within viewable distance, also it can guarantee some quality outside viewable distance. WiMAX is a good supplement to wireline access. It can support packed data service, it is very helpful on solving the shortage of access resource of China Unicom" .
Surprisingly, Those big names in WiMAX field does not enter Unicom's supplier list. State-hold Datang and Putian became the winners. Datang began their broadband wireless access project on October 2005, they also made a show during last year's ITU Hongkong exhibition. But seems the equipments they will provide to Unicom come from their OEM partner.
It is still not clear what kind of service Unicom will provide based on WiMAX, also it is not clear what kind of customers they will aim at. According to a BUPT professor, China unicom has the license on 3.5GHz spectrum. Their WiMAX service will possiblly based on this spectrum.

Just one day after this blog, another local media reported that China Unicom denied this WiMAX launch today. A spokeman of China Unicom told the media that they only made some trial, not large scale commercial launch. Both China mobile and China Unicom, even China telecom and China netcom had made similar trials.