China Telecom's mobile subscriber base swells in September
Shanghai. October 21. INTERFAX-CHINA - China Telecommunications Corp. Ltd.'s (China Telecom) mobile service subscriber base exhibited the fastest growth in September when compared to that of the other two Chinese telecom operators, according to statistics released on Oct. 20.
China Telecom added 2.97 million new CDMA service subscribers in September, bringing its total number of mobile service subscribers to 46.78 million, up 6.35 percent month-on-month, beating out both China Mobile Communications Corp. (China Mobile) and China United Network Communications Group Co. Ltd. (China Unicom) in the same area.
China Mobile's mobile service subscriber base increased by 1.07 percent from August to 508.37 million, of which its 3G TD-SCDMA network subscriber base jumped by 19.82 percent to 1.66 million, while its GSM network subscriber base grew by only 1.01 percent to total 506.71 million as of Sept. 30.
China Unicom's GSM network subscribers inched up by 0.65 percent from the previous month to total 142.8 million as of the end of September.
Both China Unicom and China Telecom saw a continued monthly decline in their fixed-line telephone subscribers in September. China Unicom's fixed-line subscribers totaled 107.13 million, down 0.47 percent from August, while China Telecom's fixed-line subscribers totaled 194.39 million, dropping 0.92 percent month-on-month.
On the other hand, both operators saw slight monthly increases in the number of broadband Internet subscribers in September. China Unicom's broadband Internet subscriber base increased by 869,000 to 37.47 million, while China Telecom's grew by 890,000 to 51.45 million by the end of Sept. 31.
The table below details the subscriber numbers of the three operators as of the end of September 2009.
Subscriber breakdown of major Chinese operators, September 2009
| Service | Cumulative subscribers, Sept. 30, 2009 (mln) | Net addition over the month of Sept.30, 2009 (mln) | Monthly change (%) | Net addition in Aug/July/June/May (mln) |
| China Mobile | 508.367 | 5.431 | 1.07 | 5.26/5.26/5.12/5.31 |
| -GSM service | 506.712 | 5.103 | 1.01 | 5.02/5.02/4.81/4.87 |
| -TD-SCDMA service | 1.655 | 0.328 | 19.82 | 0.24/0.24/0.21/0.23 |
| China Unicom GSM service | 142.799 | 0.935 | 0.65 | 0.81/0.86/0.68/1.85 |
| China Unicom telephone service | 107.131 | -0.508 | -0.47 | -0.48/-0.45/-0.26/-0.29 |
| China Unicom broadband service | 37.467 | 0.869 | 2.32 | 0.87/0.98/0.78/0.93 |
| China Telecom CDMA service | 46.78 | 2.97 | 6.35 | 2.08/2.45/2.37/2.20 |
| China Telecom telephone service | 194.39 | -1.78 | -0.92 | -1.52/-1.67/-1.39/-1.35 |
| China Telecom broadband service | 51.45 | 0.89 | 1.73 | 0.69/0.82/0.81/0.75 |
Source: China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom
-HJL