China Unicom · China
China Unicom is a network operator in China under China United Network Communications Group Company Limited. The registry records five ASNs, of which AS4837, the China169 backbone, holds the mobile role; the rest are enterprise or undocumented. Its recorded mobile country and network codes are 460-01 and 460-09, and it runs 4G LTE and 5G.
Autonomous systems
Holder names and prefix counts come from the RIPE NCC's RIPEstat Data API, fetched on 2026-09-06. Role and confidence come from the evidence linked in each row; "confirmed" means a PeeringDB or RIPEstat record, or the operator's own site, names the operator.
| ASN | Holder (RIPEstat) | Role | Announced | IPv4 / IPv6 prefixes | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AS4837 | CHINA169-Backbone - CHINA UNICOM China169 Backbone PeeringDB: China Unicom · NSP | Mobile network confirmed | yes | 1,510 / 652 | source · RIPEstat · PeeringDB |
| AS4808 | CHINA169-BJ - China Unicom Beijing Province Network | Role not documented confirmed | yes | 1,480 / 933 | source · RIPEstat |
| AS9800 | UNICOM - CHINA UNICOM | Role not documented confirmed | no | 0 / 0 | source · RIPEstat |
| AS9929 | CUII - CHINA UNICOM Industrial Internet Backbone PeeringDB: China Unicom Industrial Internet Backbone | Enterprise / transit confirmed | yes | 228 / 146 | source · RIPEstat · PeeringDB |
| AS10206 | CUZW-CN - China Unicom Zhongwei Cloud | Enterprise / transit confirmed | yes | 7 / 2 | source · RIPEstat |
Mobile network codes
The MCC identifies the country and the MNC identifies the operator inside it. Together they appear in the IMSI of every SIM on the network and in device diagnostics; they are how a handset knows which network it is on.
About China Unicom
Five ASNs are recorded for China Unicom. AS4837, the China169 backbone, is the one with a documented mobile role, and at the last probe it announced 1,510 IPv4 prefixes against 652 IPv6 prefixes, with a PeeringDB record naming it China Unicom and typing it NSP. AS9929, the Industrial Internet backbone, is recorded as enterprise with 228 IPv4 and 146 IPv6 prefixes and a PeeringDB entry under China Unicom Industrial Internet Backbone. AS4808 is the Beijing provincial network with no documented role, AS10206 is a cloud network, and AS9800 was not announcing routes at the last probe.
An address whose origin ASN is one of these is routed by China Unicom. Only AS4837 has a mobile role in the registry, and that backbone also carries fixed broadband subscriber traffic, so origin in AS4837 does not on its own mean a handset. AS4808 has no documented role, so an address there could be mobile, fixed or enterprise, and the ASN alone does not settle it. AS9929 and AS10206 are enterprise and cloud networks, which points away from consumer mobile traffic.
Research note. AS4837 (China169 backbone) is China Unicom's unified consumer backbone carrying both fixed broadband and mobile subscriber traffic; PeeringDB record: name 'China Unicom', aka AS-CNCGROUP, website chinaunicom.cn, type NSP. AS9929 (CUII) is the premium Industrial Internet backbone (PeeringDB name 'China Unicom Industrial Internet Backbone'), enterprise-grade, not the consumer mobile network. AS4808 is the Beijing provincial network (role not determined from fetched sources). AS9800 holder is 'UNICOM - CHINA UNICOM' but RIPEstat reports it as not announced. AS10206 is China Unicom Zhongwei Cloud (enterprise/cloud). Legacy CNCGROUP candidates AS4659, AS4799 and AS4814 (China Netcom, merged into China Unicom on 15 Oct 2008 per chinaunicom.com.hk profile) are all unannounced per RIPEstat and were omitted. PeeringDB was rate-limited (HTTP 429) for AS4808/AS9800/AS10206, so those rest on RIPEstat only. MCC/MNC: Wikipedia lists 460-01 operational (LTE/5G) and 460-09 operational; 460-06 (GSM/UMTS) was shut down Dec 2023 and dropped. Parent: 2025 interim report notes (ir2025_08.pdf) state China United Network Communications Group Company Limited is the ultimate holding company; 2021 annual report corporate-structure page shows 52.1% effective interest. Generations: 2024 interim results transcript on chinaunicom.com.hk cites 2M+ 4G mid-band base stations and 1.31M 5G mid-band base stations. Website: www.chinaunicom.com.cn (title '中国联通'); the listed company is China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited at www.chinaunicom.com.hk; consumer portal www.10010.com.
Checking whether an IP belongs to China Unicom
Look up the origin ASN of the address and compare it with the table above. RIPEstat answers for any address, and the RADB whois mirror lists the routes registered under an ASN.
curl -s "https://stat.ripe.net/data/prefix-overview/data.json?resource=203.0.113.9" | jq '.data.asns'whois -h whois.radb.net -- '-i origin AS4837' | grep ^routeQuestions
What is China Unicom's ASN?
Five are recorded: AS4837, the China169 backbone marked mobile; AS9929, the Industrial Internet backbone marked enterprise; AS4808, the Beijing provincial network with no documented role; AS10206, the Zhongwei Cloud network; and AS9800, which the registry shows as not announced.
What is the MCC/MNC of China Unicom?
China Unicom has two recorded pairs, 460-01 and 460-09, both under China's mobile country code 460. An older code the operator used for its retired GSM and UMTS network is not carried in the registry.
Is an IP from AS4837 a mobile IP?
AS4837 is the only China Unicom ASN the registry marks mobile, so an address there is routed by the operator's consumer backbone. That same backbone carries fixed broadband, so the ASN identifies the operator rather than the access type.
Sources
- https://www.peeringdb.com/api/net?asn=4837
- https://stat.ripe.net/data/as-overview/data.json?resource=AS4837
- https://stat.ripe.net/data/as-overview/data.json?resource=AS4808
- https://stat.ripe.net/data/as-overview/data.json?resource=AS9800
- https://www.peeringdb.com/api/net?asn=9929
- https://stat.ripe.net/data/as-overview/data.json?resource=AS9929
- https://stat.ripe.net/data/as-overview/data.json?resource=AS10206
- https://stat.ripe.net/data/as-overview/data.json?resource=AS4659
- https://stat.ripe.net/data/as-overview/data.json?resource=AS4799
- https://stat.ripe.net/data/as-overview/data.json?resource=AS4814
- https://www.chinaunicom.com.hk/en/ir/reports/ir2025/ir2025_08.pdf
- https://www.chinaunicom.com.hk/en/ir/reports/ar2021/ar2021_02.pdf
- https://www.chinaunicom.com.hk/en/about/profile.php
- https://www.chinaunicom.com.hk/en/ir/transcript/transcript_24ir.pdf
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Network_Codes_in_ITU_region_4xx_(Asia)
- https://www.chinaunicom.com.cn/
- RIPEstat Data API (holder, announced prefixes)
- PeeringDB API (network records)