China’s restructuring of its telecoms industry gets underway. AP reports that mobile network China Unicom is acquiring fixed-line China Netcom in a stock swap valued at $56.3 billion, based on Unicom’s stock last traded price. China Unicom expects the purcahse to close by year’s end.

China Telecom, meanwhile, the country’s largest fixed-line operator will buy China Unicom’s CDMA unit for $15.9 billion—66.2 billion yuan ($9.6 billion) for the network, and another 43.8 billion yuan ($6.3 billion) for its subscribers, reports Bloomberg.

• China Overhauls Telecoms Industry; Aims To Increase Competition