China Unicom, the country’s second-largest wireless operator, aims to challenge China Mobile’s dominant position and win a third of the future users of the long-awaited third-generation (3G) mobile services.

Unicom announced the target on Friday after it said earlier this week that it would invest up to Rmb100bn ($16bn) in the next two years to upgrade its network, with most of the money spent on the development of 3G.