SK Telecom and China Unicom working together

SK Telecom and China Unicom have formed a cross-border alliance and this deal would see them together buy millions of mobile phone handsets.

The deal between the two companies saw SK Telecom acquiring USD 1 billion of China Unicom bonds that are convertible into a 6.7 per cent stake.

They are now together talking with Samsung Electronics, Motorola and LG Electronics to jointly buy six handset models. The orders could be off as many as 300,000-500,000 handsets of each model.

Kim Shin-bae, SKT’s chief executive spoke on this new development: “It is quite significant that, since the strategic alliance with China Unicom, we have been able to overcome various difficulties, such as the difference in the telecommunications environment of the two countries, to acquire handset competitiveness.”

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