China Telecom wants to double its number?

China Telecom, which is taking over the smaller mobile-phone unit of China Unicom, aims to double the number of wireless customers at the business next year, CCIDCOM.com said.

The carrier expects to have almost 100 million mobile-phone subscribers by the end of next year, CCIDCOM.com, a Web site affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information, reported, citing an internal China Telecom plan.

William Li, a Hong Kong-based spokesman for China Telecom, said the carrier's Chairman Wang Xiaochu has said in the past that the company expects to have 100 million mobile subscribers within three years of being licensed to offer the services.

China Telecom, the nation's biggest fixed-line carrier, and its parent offered to pay 110 billion yuan ($16 billion) last month for the smaller of China Unicom's two wireless units, which provides services based on code division multiple access, or CDMA, technology. China Unicom's CDMA business had 43.2 million subscribers at the end of May.

Will the goal of China Telecom be more attainable after the restructuring done by the Chinese Government?