China Unicom's 3G network to be called "Wo"

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China Unicom's 3G network to be called "Wo"

by Chris Ziegler posted May 4th 2009 at 11:54PM

We all had that "whoa" moment the first time we browsed, streamed, or torrented off a 3G network -- well, okay, many of us didn't have a "whoa" moment, but stay with us here: China Unicom has officially branded its nascent 3G offering as "Wo," which we think is a pretty cool and appropriate name all things considered. For comparison's sake, this lines up with China Telecom's "e-surfing" brand and China Mobile's "G3" -- so yeah, you might be able to argue that Unicom didn't have any serious competition in the marketing department. Wo's trials kick off on May 17 in 55 markets while construction simultaneously begins on the second round of launches, so it looks like China's finally getting really real with this 3G jazz. Cheers to that, we say.

Filed under: China Unicom, UMTS

Tags: 3g, branding, china, china unicom, ChinaUnicom, wo

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Kevin @ May 5th 2009 12:06AM

It's also the pinyin for "I". And in context, can mean "me". So I think it makes sense. And in case you didn't know, pinyin is the typing system used for mandarin chinese.

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Andrew S @ May 5th 2009 12:47AM

Kevin, I think you've got the wrong wo. It's not Wo3 (我), but wo4 (沃), which means fertile, rich, or abundant.

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Brasileiro @ May 5th 2009 12:53AM

I speak Mandarin and my guess is that 我 (wo) in this context means I or me. Though it's nice to see that a World compatible WCDMA network opening in China. Rather than the commie frequency TD-SCDMA.

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Andrew S @ May 5th 2009 1:25AM

no, really, guys. http://www.labbrand.com/images/custom/3GChinaUnicomLogo.JPG

沃

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ToniCipriani @ May 5th 2009 6:26AM

And that also happens to be the first character in Wal-mart in China... it's called 沃爾瑪 (pronounced wo-er-ma)

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Alex @ May 5th 2009 1:00AM

but it's sad that WCDMA is operated by Unicom.
nonetheless, the logo reminds me of Unilever

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Richard Glitter @ May 5th 2009 1:11AM

Anyone else read that as "China Unicorn" ?

I can't look at it without thinking that

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xboxbuff @ May 5th 2009 1:47AM

the logo looks like SonyEricsson's W series cellfones.......

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Kevin @ May 5th 2009 10:19AM

Well, I was basing it on the logo picture that was seen here and in a few other news articles, which has no characters in it. But Andrew S. is in fact correct. My mistake.

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hfm @ May 5th 2009 10:27AM

Streamin YouTube be like Wo...

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Eric @ May 5th 2009 12:19PM

3G is working in one neighborhood in Beijing now.

http://ericseale.vox.com/library/post/i-had-hspa-on-china-unicom.html

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Jamar @ May 6th 2009 9:21AM

Shanghai too.

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