China Unicom says 2010 profit down on 3G costs

BEIJING (AP) — China Unicom Ltd., one of China's three major phone carriers, says Wednesday its 2010 profit fell 60 percent as it spent heavily to roll out third-generation service.

Profit was 3.8 billion yuan ($579 million) or 0.16 yuan (2 U.S. cents) per share for the 12 months ending Dec. 31, the Beijing-based company said. That was down from 9.6 billion yuan or 0.40 yuan in 2009.

Revenue rose 11 percent from 2009 to 171.3 billion yuan ($26 billion.)

Unicom competes with rivals China Telecom Ltd. and China Mobile Ltd. to attract users to its third-generation service, which supports mobile video and other services that carriers hope will boost revenue.

Chinese …