China Mobile reported a 6% year-on-year rise in net profit for the first half of 2021, buoyed by a new 5G users and improving average revenue per user.
The world’s largest mobile services operator in terms of the number of subscribers said in a stock exchange announcement that has booked operating revenue of CNY443.6 billion (USD68.5 billion) for the first six months of 2021, an increase of 13.8% year-on-year.
Of this, telecommunications service revenue amounted to CNY 393.2 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 9.8 percent.
Net profit for the first half of 2021 rose to CNY59.1 billion (US$9.12bn) from CNY55.8 billion for the same period last year, the Hong Kong-listed company said.
The company ended the first half of 2021 with 946 million subscribers, of which 378 million were 5G package customers (251 million) or 5G network customers (127 million). This represented a 0.1% fall in total mobile subscribers compared with the previous year. For the first half of 2020, China Mobile had 947 million subscribers, of which 70 million were 5G package customers.
ARPU for 5G subscribers for the period was CNY88.9, with customers using an average of 20.7GB of data per month. Mobile notes that its investment in 5G in H1 2021 totaled CNY50.2 billion.
As of the end of June 2021, a cumulative 501,000 5G base stations were put in use, providing 5G services to all urban areas of prefecture-level and above cities, as well as selected counties and key areas in China, said the company. 5G base station plan: over 700,000 5G base stations by the end of 2021, it added.
