Mobile phone operator China Unicom yesterday reported a 58 percent rise in 2008 profit, boosted by one-time gains from the sale of its Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) wireless unit to China Telecom.

Net income increased to 33.91 billion yuan from 21.4 billion yuan last year, China Unicom said in a statement. Revenue for the period declined 1.2 percent to 148.91 billion yuan.

As part of the country's telecom restructuring, China Unicom was ordered last year by the government to take over China Netcom and sell one of its mobile operations to China Telecom.