China United Telecommunications Corp, the country's second-largest mobile operator, is promoting its global positioning system to Shanghai's largest transport company and individual users to diversify its business.

Shanghai Unicom, an arm of the company -- also known as China Unicom, said on Monday that it has signed a deal with Dazhong Transportation Group Co Ltd to provide the GPS service to the firm's 200 taxis. The service is based on Shanghai Unicom's CDMA, or code division multiple access, technology.

"That's a good start for us to expand our business to many other industries, as well as a chance to show our advanced technology," said Deng Yunlan, a public relations official at Shanghai Unicom.

But officials with Shanghai Unicom and Shanghai Dazhong Taxi declined to reveal the charge for each taxi equipped with the GPS system.

Dazhong Transportation, which operates more than 7,000 cabs and ranks among the top-five taxi companies in Shanghai, is already running a GPRS system provided by Shanghai Mobile Communications Co Ltd, the arch rival of Shanghai Unicom.

"We will gradually increase the number of taxis equipped with the new system as we hope the whole dispatch system could be stable with two positioning systems working together," said Xia Jijin, deputy manager of Shanghai Dazhong Taxi Ltd.

The GPS system is a worldwide radio navigation system formed from a constellation of 24 satellites and Shanghai Unicom's base stations. The system is able to track the positions of taxis through wireless communications, which will help staff in the call center find the nearest cab available for customers.

Xia explained that the two systems will help them ensure at least one system is working if the other malfunctions.

Xia said his company, which has already equipped 2,500 cabs with the two GPS systems, will continue to install them in 500 to 600 taxis this year, with half of them using the CDMA technology offered by Shanghai Unicom.

More cabs equipped with the GPS system will help the company expand its taxi booking business done through a hot line.

It's expected that with the GPS systems, taxi bookings to Dazhong are expected to rise to between 12,000 and 15,000 calls a day later this year from less than 10,000 calls a day currently.

Industry insiders said that Shanghai Unicom, which has invested heavily to establish its CDMA network, attracted fewer CDMA mobile phone subscribers than expected. So it is a good strategic move for the company to offer the CDMA network to companies in other industries.

Shanghai Unicom disclosed at the end of last year its plans to invest 2 billion yuan (US$240.9 million) to increase its CDMA network capacity to 6 million users from 1.8 million.

Shanghai Unicom also launched its GPS system to individual users before Valentine's Day, allowing users to find the nearest banks, restaurants and hotels through their cell phones.

(eastday.com February 17, 2004)