China's Three Main Telcos Report Q1 2025 Subscriber Totals
Marbridge Consulting, 4/25/25
The listed arms of China's three main telecom operators have announced their subscriber totals for the quarter ending March 31, 2025. Note that starting from 2025, all three operators - China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom - shifted to reporting user totals on a quarterly, rather than monthly, basis. In addition, both China Unicom and China Telecom have joined China Mobile in reporting 5G network customer, rather than 5G package customer, totals. A 5G network customer is defined as a mobile customer who has used the 5G network in the given quarter, while a 5G package customer is a mobile customer who has simply subscribed to a 5G tariff plan (i.e. "5G network customers" is a subset of "5G package customers").
China Mobile
China Mobile (0941.HK; 600941.SH) reported a net loss of 0.94 mln mobile subscribers during the quarter, lowering the telecom operator's total mobile user base to slightly over 1.003 bln.
During Q1 2025, China Mobile's total number of 5G network customers increased by 25.27 mln to reach 577.67 mln.
China Mobile's total number of fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) saw a net increase of 5.48 mln in Q1 2025 to reach 320.05 mln.
China Telecom
China Telecom (0728.HK; 601728.SH) saw its mobile subscriber base reach 429.47 mln in Q1 2025, representing a net increase of 4.95 mln quarter-on-quarter. Of this total, 266.21 mln were 5G network customers, representing a net increase of 15.48 mln quarter-on-quarter.
China Telecom reported its total number of fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) reached 198.11 mln during Q1 2025, representing a net increase of 0.67 mln quarter-on-quarter.
China Unicom
China Unicom (0762.HK; 600050.SH) reported that as of the end of Q1 2025, its aggregate number of "Ubiquitous Connectivity" subscribers reached nearly 1.182 bln, up 44.76 mln quarter-on-quarter. China Unicom's "Ubiquitous Connectivity" category is comprised of the operator's combined total aggregate mobile billing subscribers, fixed-line telephone subscribers, fixed-line broadband subscribers, Internet-of-things terminal connections, and networking leased line subscribers. Of this total, 203.83 mln were 5G network customers; and 663.18 mln were Internet-of-things terminal connections, up 38.40 mln quarter-on-quarter.
China Unicom also reported that its number of customers served by virtual 5G industry private network during Q1 2025 was 17,941, up 1,882 quarter-on-quarter.
China Broadnet
China's fourth 5G telecom network operator, China Broadnet, saw its 5G user base reach approximately 32.75 mln as of the end of December, according to statistics announced by China's National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) at the 2025 National Radio and Television Work Conference held in Beijing from January 3-4. Since that time, however, Broadnet has not released any update to its 5G subscriber totals.
Broadnet officially launched 5G network services just 34 months ago, on June 27, 2022, and is not yet reporting its 5G subscriber totals on a regular, monthly or quarterly basis.
Keywords: China Telecom China Mobile China Unicom fixed-line Internet broadband statistics telecom mobile subscribers 5G broadband subscribers 0728.HK 0762.HK 0941.HK 600050.SH 601728.SH 600941.SH Broadnet
Sending
