China Unicom branches out to the UK with CUniq MVNO

China Unicom has announced the launch of CUniq in London, it’s MVNO offering that allows multiple numbers on one SIM card, if you’re into that sort of thing.

The one-card-multiple-number service targets business customers and tourists who travel between Mainland China, Hong Kong and the UK, on a regular basis. The SIM card will have Mainland China, Hong Kong and UK numbers embedded onto it, with the user able to use multi-user voice call service in these three areas, while also using data allowances in 45 countries and regions.

“China Unicom has made vigorous efforts to drive reforms and innovations over the years. Innovation becomes the engine to propel its development,” said Jiang Zhengxin, Deputy General Manager of China Unicom. “As to its mobile communication operation, China Unicom is committed to providing leading mobile applications and innovative services to customers in Asia-Pacific region.

“The launch of CUniq enables CUG to offer more convenient services to customers in Europe. Its launch symbolizes accelerating expansion of its international business and marks a milestone for CUG’s development of MVNO services in overseas market.”

The MVNO has been launched in partnership with Manx Telecom, and makes use of Telefonica’s O2 network throughout the UK. The team plan to expand the offering in new regions in the future, specifically highlighting America, Australia and Japan, as regions of interest. Considering the increased number of individuals who are travelling between China, Hong Kong and the UK, this seems to be a smart move by the China Unicom team.

For those who are interested, the CU in CUniq stands for China Unicom, and the Uniq is an abbreviation of unique. We’re going to ignore that the team has used the U twice.