Local carriers had deployed a total of 4.55 million 5G base stations across China as of the end of June
In sum – what to know:
104M new 5G users in H1 – China’s four major operators now have over 1.1B 5G subscribers, making up 61% of all mobile connections.
China Mobile drives biggest growth – The world’s largest operator added 47M 5G customers, reaching nearly 600M subscribers, up 84.8M year-on-year.
4.55M 5G base stations deployed – Operators added 298K base stations in H1, with 5G sites now making up 35.7% of total infrastructure.
China’s four main mobile operators — China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Broadnet — added a combined 104 million 5G subscribers in the first half of 2025, pushing their total to over 1.1 billion, according to recent figures from the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
China ended June with a total mobile base of 1.81 billion subscribers, after a net addition of 19.93 million users since the beginning of the year.
The ministry noted that this figure represents almost 61% of all mobile connections in the country.
In the first half of 2025, China Mobile, the world’s largest operator in terms of subscribers, gained 47 million 5G network customers, raising its base to 599.3 million, an increase of 84.8 million year-on-year.
China Telecom, the second-largest operator, added 31.3 million 5G users in the past two quarters, reaching 282 million by the end of June.
China Unicom reported nearly 10 million new 5G network subscribers in Q2 but did not disclose Q1 figures after shifting in March from reporting package subscribers to network subscribers.
China Broadnet recorded almost 1 million new 5G customers in the first quarter of the year, ending March with 33.7 million. The company has not yet released data for the second quarter of the year.
Meanwhile, the ministry noted that Chinese operators had deployed a total of 4.55 million 5G base stations as of the end of June, after adding 298,000 base stations since the beginning of the year. 5G base stations accounted for 35.7% of total mobile base stations across China, the ministry added.
China Mobile had previously outlined plans to deploy 340,000 additional 5G base stations in 2025. With these new 5G deployments, China Mobile’s total 5G base stations will reach nearly 2.8 million by the end of 2025. Chinese operators have rolled out 5G-Advanced (5G-A) networks in more than 300 cities, local press reported, citing data from the MIIT.
5G-A offers 10-times faster peak speeds and significantly greater connection density than standard 5G, enabling applications like real-time sensing and smart infrastructure, claim reports and marketing. China Unicom is looking to establish continuous 5G-A coverage in key areas across 300 cities by the end of 2025, following initial pilot deployments in major cities in 2024, according to previous press reports.
The MIIT, in collaboration with 11 other government bodies, recently announced an updated plan to expand 5G applications, with a goal of widespread use by 2027. Known as the second “Set Sail” action plan, it prioritizes consumer-oriented applications and aims to: increase 5G base stations to 38 per 10,000 people; achieve 5G user penetration higher than 85%; ensure that over 75% of network traffic is carried via 5G networks.
