News
Company ends September with 481 million 4G customers; fixed broadband business sees strong growth.
China Mobile on Thursday reported a 3.1% increase in net profit for the first nine months of 2016, driven by continued strong growth in its 4G customer base.
The company ended September with 481 million 4G subscribers, compared to 429 million a year earlier. Its overall mobile customer base increased by 17.4 million during the period, leaving it with 844 million in total.
"Buoyed by the group’s continued efforts to consolidate its 4G leading position and accelerate the migration of customers to 4G networks, the group saw favourable development in its mobile business for the first three quarters of 2016," said China Mobile chairman Shang Bing, in a statement.
Handset data traffic was up 131% compared to the first nine months of 2015, again driven by strong 4G uptake.
China Mobile’s fixed broadband customer base has also shown robust growth, increasing to 74.2 million at the end of September from 65.8 million a year ago.
On the financial side, nine-month revenue grew 4.3% year-on-year to 542.7 billion yuan (€73.3 billion). The performance was driven by service revenue, which increased by 5.4% to CNY481.2 billion, offsetting hardware and other revenue, which fell 3.5% to CNY61.5 billion.
EBITDA edged up 1.3% to CNY114.4 billion, while profit attributable to shareholders increased to CNY88.1 billion from CNY85.4 billion a year earlier.
"The group will continue to adhere to the principles of forward-looking planning, effective resource allocation, rational investment and refined management in cost allocation, endeavour to strike a balance between the group’s short-term performance and long-term development, strive to increase revenue and save costs and maintain favourable profitability, thereby continuously creating value for investors," Bing said.
Meanwhile, China Mobile’s rival China Unicom is not enjoying the same degree of success.
The company this week warned that profit for the first three quarters of 2016 fell 80.6% year-on-year to CNY1.59 billion, due to a substantial increase in selling and marketing expenses, as well as higher network, operation, and support costs.
China Unicom will publish its financial results on Friday.
