China Tower said that total tower tenants rose to 3.65 million at the end of last year
China Tower ended 2023 with a total of 2.04 million towers under management, down 0.4%, the company said in its earnings statement.
The company said that total tower tenants rose to 3.65 million at end-2023, pushing the average number per tower to 1.79 from 1.74 at the end of 2022.
China Tower’s net profit in 2023 surged 11% year-on-year to CNY9.75 billion ($1.35 billion), while operating revenue grew 2% to CNY 94 billion.
“Smart tower” revenue amounted to CNY7.28 billion last year, climbing 27.7% year-on-year, while sales from the company’s energy unit increased 31.7% year-on-year to CNY4.21 billion.
Also, tower business revenue declined by 2.8% to CNY75 billion, while indoor distributed antenna system (DAS) sales increased by 22.5% to CNY7.17 billion.
“5G network penetration and coverage in China continued to expand in 2023 and we were able to capture the opportunities this presented,” the company said in a statement.
“Through increased sharing of existing site resources, wider use of social resources and greater effort in promoting the adoption of our integrated wireless communications coverage solutions, we have been able to effectively support the accelerated 5G network extension. We completed approximately 586,000 5G construction demand in 2023, of which more than 95% were achieved by sharing existing resources,” the company added.
China Tower was formed in 2014, when the country’s mobile carrier China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom transferred their telecom towers to the new company. The three telcos decided to create the new entity in a move to reduce redundant construction of telecommunications infrastructure across the country. China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom currently own a 38%, 28.1% and 27.9% stake respectively. State-owned asset manager China Reform Holding owns the remaining 6%.
China ended 2023 with a total of 3.38 million 5G base stations at a national level, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) previously said.
By the end of last year, the country had more than 10,000 5G-powered industrial internet projects and 5G pilot applications were launched in key areas such as cultural tourism, medical care and education to help restore and expand consumption, said Xin Guobin, vice minister of MIIT, at a press conference.
The country’s 5G mobile phone users reached 805 million by the end of last year, he added.
According to the estimates of Chinese research institutions, 5G technology was expected to help create an economic output of CNY1.86 trillion in 2023, an increase of 29% compared with the figure recorded in 2022, Xin said.
