Marbridge Daily

Operators Announce November 2007 Subscriber Totals

Marbridge Consulting, 12/20/07

China's four main telecom operators have announced their subscriber totals for November.

Mobile operators continued to see stable growth in user uptake. China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) added 6.1 mln subscribers to reach 362.8 mln and China Unicom (NYSE: CHU; 0762.HK; 600050.SH) added 1.4 mln new subs (1.1 mln GSM subs and 302,000 CDMA subs) to reach 159 mln (118 mln GSM subs and 40.1 mln CDMA subs).

Fixed-line operators suffered further user-base declines. China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) lost 750,000 fixed-line subs, bringing its total to 221.8 mln, and China Netcom (NYSE: CN; 0906.HK) lost 760,000 fixed-line subs, dropping its total to 113.4 mln.

Broadband continued to help buoy the fixed-line operators, with China Telecom adding 610,000 new broadband users to reach 35.1 mln and Netcom adding 480,000 to reach 19.3 mln.

Pressured by the shrinking profitability of basic services, the fixed-line operators are increasingly looking to their data businesses for growth. China Telecom reportedly plans to double bandwidth fees in 2008 (see Rumor: China Telecom to Raise Bandwidth Fees in 2008," MD 12/06/07 issue; and Rumor: China Telecom Implements Bandwidth Fee Hike," MD 12/20/07 issue) with some customers already claiming to have seen sizeable rate increases (see Rumor: Chinese Operators Increasing Bandwidth Fees," MD 12/18/07 issue).

Keywords: China Mobile CHL 0941.HK China Unicom CHU 0762.HK 600050.SH China Telecom CHA 0728.HK China Netcom CN 0906.HK users statistics CDMA GSM broadband bandwidth fee statistics November 2007 telecom wireless