China’s Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) – a state-owned entity that acts as the ultimate parent company of all three of China’s main telecoms groups – will reportedly transfer CNY50 billion (US$7.4 billion) in capital from China Mobile to China Unicom in a bid to stimulate competition in the country’s recently restructured mobile market. According to various reports in the Chinese media, the capital transfer is aimed at compensating China Unicom for the discounted sale of its CDMA network to rival China Telecom. Forbes reports that China Unicom will also transfer part of the sum to China Telecom to help fund its CNY110 billion (US$16.2 billion) purchase of the network. The reports notes that the move is part of the Chinese government’s strategy of  ‘asymmetric regulation’ designed to allow China Unicom and China Telecom to better compete with mobile market-leader, China Mobile.

In related news, China Tech News reports that China Unicom will tomorrow launch its tender for WCDMA equipment. According to previous reports, the operator is planning to invest CNY100 billion (US$14.7 billion) over the next three years in building-out the network and is planning to launch services in third-quarter 2009. China Unicom has already implemented tests of the WCDMA network in eight cities across China, the report says. Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens Networks, Huawei and ZTE are all likely to bid in the tender.