Report: China Telecommunications to buy China United mobile business for US$14.4 billion

China Telecommunications Corp., parent of the country's dominant fixed-line operator, is expected to buy a mobile business from China United Telecommunications Inc. for around US$14.4 billion, it was reported Monday.

The deal was anticipated as part of a long-awaited government restructuring of the country's telecom market unveiled last week.

That plan called for China Telecommunications _ parent of China Telecom, China's main fixed-line carrier _ to buy a mobile network from China United, parent of mobile provider China Unicom.

Details of the acquisition were to be officially announced later Monday. The South China Morning Post cited anonymous sources as saying China Telecommunications will likely pay 100 billion yuan (US$14.4 billion; euro9.3 billion) for China United's code division multiple access business. The technology, known as CDMA, is popular in the U.S. and Asia.

The purchase price could include more than 60 billion yuan (US$8.7 billion; euro5.6 billion) for the network itself and around 40 billion yuan (US$5.8 billion; euro3.7 billion) for the CDMA customer base, the newspaper reported.

Unicom has about 44 million subscribers, the paper said.

Representatives from both companies declined to comment.