China Telecom reports strong H1 with mobile leading the charge
China Telecom has reported a healthy first half performance as operating revenues increased 4.1% to CNY 184.1 billion, largely led by a successful mobile segment.
Looking specifically at the mobile side of things, total number of subscribers was up to almost 230 million, a gain of 14.85 million year-on-year, of which 152 million were 4G subscribers. In terms of revenues for the first half, mobile claimed CNY 75,742 billion, a strong increase of 12.2%. Net profits for the entire business stood at CNY 12,537 billion, a year-on-year uplift of 7.4%.
“In the first half of 2017, facing increasingly intensified market competition coupled with complicated and changing industry environments, the Company firmly rose to the challenges with a unitary goal cohering as a whole, adopting conscientious and pragmatic approach with excellent execution and marching towards the goal of being a leading integrated intelligent information services operator,” China Telecom said in a statement.
In the broadband business, the numbers are pretty substantial as well. Over the course of the first six months, the team can count an extra 4.98 million customers, up to 128.1 million in total, but the Fibre-to-the-home numbers are looking pretty impressive as well. Total FTTH subscribers now stands at 117.23 million, a year-on-year increase of 11.24 million.
Let’s just put things in perspective for the moment. BT has 19 million 4G customers and a fibre-broadband customer base of 5.1 million. The population of Wales is just over 3 million people. Might seem obvious to state, but it is worth reminding ourselves every now and then; China is massive.
