(20 February 2008 5:25 pm)

BANGALORE: Chinese telecom mobile operator China Unicom announced that it is joining the CCF (CDMA Certification Forum) as a member and has accepted a seat on the CCF's Board of Directors, according to an official reelase.

"We are pleased to be joining the CCF and are looking forward to being actively involved in the CCF's mission of providing the CDMA industry with a device certification process that covers new technologies while minimizing the time and cost of bringing products to market," the reelase quotes China Unicom manager- terminal testing, value-added services department Liu Jian Min.

"We are excited to welcome China Unicom to the CCF board of directors" says CCF president and CEO Thomas Erickson, "The device acceptance process at China Unicom is closely aligned with the CCF model. We look forward to learning from China Unicom and working with them to further improve CDMA device certification on a global scale."

The CCF test process ensures devices to meet the requisite product conformance, network interoperability and essential performance specifications dictated by international standards. Members of the CCF are vendors and operators of the CDMA industry that are committed to promoting the use of the CCF certification process amongst the industry in an effort to improve the availability, interoperability and affordability of CDMA2000 devices.

China Unicom's seat on the CCF Board of Directors became effective in January 2008. Other members of the board include CDG, Motorola, Nokia, Nortel, Qualcomm, Tata, Telus, US Cellular, Verizon Wireless and Via Telecom Inc.

The CCF (CDMA Certification Forum) is a global non-profit organization dedicated to improving test efficiency in order to improve time to market and cost associated with CDMA device certification. By using the CCF certification process, CDMA vendors and operators are able to bring devices to multiple markets more rapidly and affordably than ever before.

Incorporated in 1994 with the approval of the State Council, China United Telecommunications Corporation ("China Unicom") is a large-sized, state-owned and comprehensive telecom operator, which announced its IPO both within the China and overseas markets.

China Unicom is mainly engaged in nationwide basic telecom services and value-added telecom services, including mobile communications services, international and domestic long-distance services, local telephony services within approved scope, data communications services, Internet services, IP telephony services and etc.

Currently, the company owns the largest CDMA network, the third largest mobile subscriber base and the second largest CDMA subscriber base in the world. As of October 2007, the total number of mobile subscribers of GSM and CDMA exceed 150 million.