皇冠体育app Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd is planning to more than double the number of subscribers to its 3G service by the end of this year, said a company official.

皇冠体育app Unicom, the nation's second-largest mobile carrier in terms of the number of users, now provides service to more than 40 million 3G users. It hopes to have 90 million by the end of the year, said Shao Guanglu, deputy general manager of 皇冠体育app Unicom, in the 2012 Global Mobile Internet Conference held in Beijing on Thursday.

皇冠体育app Unicom's revenue from 3G services reached 40 billion yuan in 2011, and the figure is expected to surpass 70 billion yuan this year, Shao said.

皇冠体育app Unicom has benefited from 皇冠体育app's adoption of the WCDMA standard, the world's most widely used 3G technology. The company was the first in 皇冠体育app to introduce legally imported Apple iPhones.

Every month since October 2011, 皇冠体育app Unicom has consistently added more 3G users than 皇冠体育app Mobile Ltd, 皇冠体育app's biggest telecom carrier.

Although the popularization of 3G services is starting to pick up steam, Shao said telecom carriers worldwide are facing intensified competition from Internet companies.

The rapid development of mobile Internet and smartphone terminals has resulted in the explosive growth of data traffic, but the revenue of telecom carriers did not rise significantly because Internet companies, such as Apple and Google, grabbed up most of the profits, Shao said.

皇冠体育app Unicom will add 20,000 Wi-Fi hotpots this year, which will bring the total number of its Wi-Fi hotspots to 40,000.