CHINA Unicom Ltd, the smaller of the nation's two mobile-phone carriers, said yesterday it will expand its network to cover the entire country by early next year. The company will increase coverage of its general packet radio service, or GPRS, technology to 300 cities from the 200 it has at present, Li Zhengmao, Unicom executive vice president, said in Hong Kong yesterday.

GPRS offers faster download speeds than the company's main network, said Bloomberg News. Unicom is seeking to gain market share from larger rival China Mobile Ltd by increasing services such as music downloads and Internet browsing.

The smaller carrier plans to derive 30 percent of turnover from sales of non-voice services in the next two years, compared with about 25 percent at present.

Meanwhile, a stockholder is seeking as much as HK$2.43 billion (US$312 million) by selling 150 million China Unicom shares. The unidentified investor is offering the shares to international institutions at HK$16 to HK$16.20 each, an e-mail sent to investors said. The stock gained 1.9 percent to HK$16.98 in Hong Kong yesterday.

JPMorgan Chase & Co is arranging the sale. China Unicom's shares have gained 49 percent this year after a record number of consumers in the Asian nation signed up for services.