Marbridge Daily

China Telcos Announce May 2013 Subscriber Totals

Marbridge Consulting, 6/20/13

China's three main telecom operators have announced their subscriber totals for May 2013.

May saw the net addition of 10.39 mln new mobile subscribers. China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) added 4.61 mln new mobile subscribers, pushing the operator's total mobile user base to 735.18 mln, of which a total of 129.40 mln subscribers used China Mobile's TD-SCDMA terminals during the month. China Mobile added 9.37 mln new TD-SCDMA subscribers in May, but lost 4.77 mln GSM subscribers.

China Unicom (NYSE: CHU; 0762.HK; 600050.SH) saw a net addition of 3.74 mln new mobile subscribers during the month, bringing its total to 258.36 mln, of which 162.47 mln were GSM subscribers, and 95.90 mln were WCDMA subscribers. China Unicom lost 268,000 GSM subscribers and added 4.00 mln new WCDMA subscribers in May.

China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) saw a net addition of 2.05 mln new mobile subscribers, taking its total to 172.24 mln, of which 84.24 mln were CDMA2000 EV-DO subscribers and 88.00 mln were CDMA subscribers. China Telecom added 3.10 mln new CDMA2000 EV-DO subscribers but lost 1.05 mln CDMA subscribers in May.

Of the combined total of 309.53 mln 3G subscribers, China Mobile holds 41.80%, China Unicom 30.98%, and China Telecom 27.22%. Of total new mobile subscribers added in May, China Mobile took 44.34%, dropping its share of China's total mobile user base to 63.06%. China Unicom's share of the total mobile user base increased for the 28th straight month, rising from 22.04% at the end of April 2013 to 22.16% at the end of May, while China Telecom's share increased for the 53rd straight month, rising from 14.73% at the end of April 2013 to 14.77% at the end of May.

China Telecom lost 670,000 fixed-line subs, reducing its total to 160.36 mln, and China Unicom lost 551,000 fixed-line subs, decreasing its total to 90.14 mln.

China Telecom gained 870,000 new broadband subscribers to reach 95.02 mln, and China Unicom added 545,000 new broadband subs to reach 61.97 mln total broadband subscribers.

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