Lu said that the company's iPhone 5 subsidy is less than for the iPhone 4S.

"Customer response to iPhone 5 in China has been incredible, setting a record with the best first weekend sales ever on the mainland," Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, said earlier in a statement.

In November, China Unicom said that it plans to pay 12.2 billion yuan ($1.96 billion) to its parent company for the fixed-line assets in 21 southern Chinese cities and provinces.

Its chief financial officer Li Fushen said on Friday that the acquisition is expected to boost China Unicom's net profits.

"We expect that our net profit in 2012 to increase by 200 million to 300 million yuan due to the acquisition," said Li.

Li stressed that China Unicom's cash in hand as well as its bank credit will be enough to pay for the acquisition, and the company has no fund raising plans.

Merrill Lynch said in a research report that the acquisition is expected to boost the company's net profit by 340 million yuan in 2013 and 460 million yuan in 2014, accounting for up to 2.7 percent of its net profit in each year.

We recommend:
'Boeing Dreamliner riddled with errors	The spending of China's rich	China to open world's longest high-speed railway
Christmas Wedding Expo closes in Hong Kong	Harbin-Dalian high-speed railway starts operation	New wave of communication tools
Alibaba's 2012 transaction volume hits 1 trln yuan	China's savings rate world's highest	IPhone 5 goes on sale in China