China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. (CHU) said Friday its January-September net profit totaled CNY9.34 billion.

Revenue for the nine-month period was CNY114.93 billion. The company said it didn't provide year-earlier figures because its newly acquired businesses haven't prepared financial information for the January-September period of 2008.

China Unicom merged with fixed-line operator China Netcom Group Corp. (Hong Kong) Ltd. last year under a government plan that revamped the country's telecommunications industry by cutting the number of operators to three from six.

Competition in China's telecommunications market has intensified since the government awarded third-generation operating licenses to China Unicom, China Mobile Ltd. and China Telecom Corp. All three companies have been striving to roll out new 3G services with lower tariffs and higher handset subsidies.

Analysts said China Unicom's earnings will decline as it incurs the startup costs of its 3G services, which it launched on Oct. 1, and as its fixed-line business comes under growing pressure from subscribers dropping their fixed lines in favor of mobile phones.

China Unicom started offering Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhone services in China Friday.

The company's net profit for the January-September period was higher than the average CNY9.25 billion forecast of six analysts polled earlier by Dow Jones Newswires.

Its average revenue per user - an important industry gauge to measure telecom operators' long-term growth - fell slightly to CNY41.6 in the January-September period from CNY41.7 in the first half of 2009.

-By Lorraine Luk, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002; lorraine.luk@dowjones.com