China Unicom (0762.HK; CHU.NYSE) will officially launch nationwide commercial operation of 3G services on October 1, and it is the last telecom operator in Chinese mainland to roll out 3G commercial services after China Mobile (0941.HK; CHL.NYSE) and China Telecom (0728.HK; CHA.NYSE).

According to Zhang Jianhua, general manager of the carrier's branch in north China's Liaoning province, China Unicom's WCDMA 3G business boasts the longest term for commercial use, the most mature technology, the best evolutionary capacity, and the richest types of terminal products around the world. By this June, there were 115 countries and 379 million subscribers using the 3G networks in the world.

China Unicom was granted for operating 3G business on January 7 and started trial commercial use of 3G services on May 17. The telecom operator has earmarked investments of 38.7 billion yuan in 3G network construction this year, and invested 22.85 billion yuan by the end of August, having 285 Chinese cities covered by WCDMA networks.

Besides basic voice call, China Unicom offers handset network access, video call, mobile TV, mobile music, mobile search, mobile newspaper, and wireless interface card services.

Taking account of China Mobile, who adopts China's self-developed TD-SCDMA standard 3G network, and China Telecom, who offers CDMA2000 standard services, China's three carriers are like the three legs of a tripod in the 3G market.