Around 240 members from the headquarters of China Unicom will be transferred to China Telecom, the country's biggest fixed-line operator, in the ongoing restructuring of the country's telecommunications industry, Sina.com reports.

These staff members hail from China Unicom's CDMA network operating division, value-added services division, planning division, network building division, technical division, operating and maintenance division, and interconnection division.

Some of the above-mentioned divisions will be transferred to China Telecom as a whole, while in others, only the staff of the CDMA network will be shifted to China Telecom, the report said.

China Telecom and China Unicom have jointly set up a work team to carry out the reshuffle. Asset recognition is expected to finish before the end of July.

Starting Wednesday, provincial-level branches will each send a team to help restructure local CDMA network services.

Almost thirty percent of the entire Unicom staff are scheduled to join China Telecom. These new members will work in the four new sections, the individual client division, mobile building division, wireless network optimization center, and the terminal operation company.

The industry reshuffle is expected to make the market more transparent and fair, and expedite the licensing process for third-generation (3G) high-speed mobile services.

A statement by the Ministry of Industry and Information on May 24 said that fixed-line carrier China Telecom would buy the CDMA mobile phone network from China Unicom.

Another fixed-line operator, China Netcom, which dominates the northern China market, will get China Unicom's mobile network and users based on GSM technology via the merger.

China Mobile Communications Corp, the state-owned parent of China Mobile, will take control of fixed-line carrier China Tietong Telecommunications Corp.

After the regrouping, China will issue three licenses for 3G high-speed mobile services.