China Unicom Corp said it has ordered CDMA chips from VIA Technologies Inc of Taiwan.

In a statement, Unicom said the two companies will also cooperate in mobile phone chip technology and smart phones.

No details of the tieup were provided.

The deal breaks the hold of Qualcomm Inc, on Unicom's CDMA chip purchases and promises to lower chip costs.

In a separate statement, China Unicom announced it has tied up with Dopod Communication Corp, a domestic smart phone manufacturer, for low-price CDMA handsets configured for VIA Technologies chips.