LTE technology represents more than 23% of the operator’s overall mobile subscribers
The world’s largest mobile telephony operator China Mobile ended the first half of 2015 with 189.6 million subscribers in the 4G segment, according to the operator’s latest financial results.
The telco recorded a net addition of nearly 100 million 4G LTE subscribers since June 2014. Currently, 4G LTE technology accounts for 23.2% of China Mobile’s overall mobile subscribers, but 2G still represents the largest share, with 50.5% of the telco’s total subscribers.
Total 4G mobile base stations reached 940,000 at the end of June, covering approximately 1 billion people. China Mobile said it is currently offering a portfolio of nearly 1,000 4G mobile phones.
The company ended June 2015 with 817.2 million subscribers, up compared to 806.6 million at the end of June 2014.
China Mobile invested 69.7 billion yuan ($10.9 billion) in the first half of the year. Nearly 50% of that amount was invested in the 4G segment. For full 2015, the operator aims total capital expenditures to reach 199.7 billion yuan. A total of 72.2 billion yuan will be invested in the 4G segment.
Operating revenue for the first half of the year reached 340.7 billion yuan, up 4.9% from 324.7 billion yuan in the same period the previous year. Net profit for the first half of the year amounted to 57.2 billion yuan, almost flat year-on-year.
China Unicom ends first half of 2015 with 837,000 3G, 4G base stations
Rival operator China Unicom recorded operating revenue of 144.7 billion yuan in the first half of the year, down from 149.4 billion yuan in the year-ago period. Net profits for the first half of 2015 totaled 6.99 billion yuan, almost flat vs. the same period in 2014.
China Unicom ended June with 289.3 million mobile subscribers, totaling 157.8 million 3G and 4G subscribers, up from 140.8 million in June 2014. The telco reached a total of 837,000 3G and 4G base stations after a net addition of 272,000 base stations during the first half of the year.
During the first half of 2015, China Unicom accelerated the integrated operation of its mobile business, fully opened its 4G network to all the users, promoted 4G smartphones and focused on the user migration from 2G/3G to 4G.
