Operators Announce March 2008 Subscriber Totals
Marbridge Consulting, 4/21/08
China's four main telecom operators have announced their subscriber totals for March 2008.
Mobile subscriber uptake continued to accelerate, with a total of 9.4 mln new subs in the month. Of this total, China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) added 7.8 mln subscribers, to reach 392 mln, while China Unicom (NYSE: CHU; 0762.HK; 600050.SH) added 1.6 mln new subs (1.3 mln GSM subs and 301,000 CDMA subs) to reach 167 mln (124 mln GSM subs and 42.8 mln CDMA subs).
The downward trend for fixed-line subscriptions also continued, with a net loss of 1.4 mln subs between the two main operators. China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) dropped 0.9 mln fixed-line subs, bringing its total to 217 mln, and China Netcom (NYSE: CN; 0906.HK) lost 500,000 fixed-line subs, dropping its total to 109 mln. For China Telecom, the main contributor to the slide in fixed-line user numbers has been PHS; while the company has seen a net gain of 130,000 traditional fixed-line (i.e. non-PHS) users since the end of December 2007, it has suffered a net loss of almost 3.3 mln PHS subscribers. Netcom, conversely, has lost more traditional fixed-line users than PHS users in the same period, dropping 960,000 of the former and 760,000 of the latter.
Broadband saw further robust growth in March, with China Telecom adding 730,000 new broadband users, its highest monthly gain since January 2007, to reach 37.7 mln and Netcom adding 610,000, to reach 21.7 mln.
Keywords: fixed-line subscribers broadband subscribers mobile subscribers statistics PHS subscribers 0728.HK 0762.HK 0906.HK 0941.HK 600050.SH broadband CDMA CHA China Mobile China Netcom China Telecom China Unicom CHL CHU CN GSM PHS telecom wireless
Sending
