Marbridge Daily

China Telcos Announce September 2012 Subscriber Totals

Marbridge Consulting, 10/29/12

China's three main telecom operators have announced their subscriber totals for September 2012.

September saw the net addition of 12.05 mln new mobile subscribers. China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) added 5.43 mln new mobile subscribers, pushing the operator's total mobile user base to 698.51 mln, of which a total of 75.60 mln subscribers used China Mobile's TD-SCDMA terminals during the month. China Mobile added 3.46 mln new TD-SCDMA subscribers in September.

China Unicom (NYSE: CHU; 0762.HK; 600050.SH) added 3.42 mln new mobile subscribers during the month, bringing its total to 229.49 mln. Of the new mobile subs added, approximately 242,000 were GSM subscribers, bringing China Unicom's total GSM user base to 162.62 mln, 3.18 mln users were WCDMA 3G subscribers, pushing the company's total WCDMA user base to 66.86 mln subscribers.

China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) added 3.20 mln CDMA subs, taking its total to 152.62 mln, of which 59.72 mln were CDMA2000 EV-DO subscribers. China Telecom added 3.28 mln new CDMA2000 EV-DO subscribers in September.

Of the combined total of 202.18 mln 3G subs, China Mobile holds 37.39%, China Unicom 33.07%, and China Telecom 29.54%. Of total new mobile subs added in September, China Mobile took 45.08%, dropping its share of China's total mobile user base to 64.64%. China Unicom's share of the total mobile user base increased for the 20th straight month, rising from 21.16% at the end of August to 21.24% at the end of September, while China Telecom's share increased for the 45th straight month, rising from 13.98% at the end of August to 14.12% at the end of September.

China Telecom lost 510,000 fixed-line subs, reducing its total to 165.96 mln, and China Unicom gained 210,000 fixed-line subs, increasing its total to 92.62 mln.

China Telecom added 1.20 mln new broadband subscribers to reach 86.96 mln, and China Unicom added 669,000 new broadband subs to reach 62.65 mln.

Keywords: national statistics China Telecom China Mobile China Unicom broadband telecom users mobile subscribers 3G broadband subscribers CDMA GSM CHL TD-SCDMA WCDMA 0728.HK 0762.HK 0941.HK 600050.SH CHA CHU CDMA2000 EV-DO fixed-line subscribers market share