CHINA Telecom has started the bidding for the newly-acquired wireless network and the result is expected to be released within a week.

China Telecom, which acquired the China Unicom's CDMA business, has asked several telecommunications equipment makers to attend the bidding, including Motorola, ZTE and Huawei.

Shenzhen-based ZTE and Huawei both confirmed that they had attended the test and several equipment makers, which declined to be identified, said the result would be released next week.

China Telecom, the country's No.1 fixed-line phone network carrier, announced recently it would invest 80 billion yuan (US$11.76 billion) on the wireless network within three years.

It may launch the mobile services as early as October.

"As a mobile carrier newcomer, China Telecom has to upgrade the network to provide users with better services to compete with rivals," said Sandy Shen, a Shanghai-based analyst at Gartner Inc, a US-based IT consulting firm.

Chinese firms, such as ZTE and Huawei, will get bigger market shares, according to the Guotai Jun'an Securities.

"The Chinese firms will take market share from rivals such as Motorola and Nortel," said Chen Liang, an analyst of Guotai Jun'an.

Last year ZTE led the domestic market with a 32-percent share, followed by Motorola's 23 percent, Alcatel-Lucent's 22 percent and Nortel's 17 percent.