China's Telcos Announce December 2013 Subscriber Totals
Marbridge Consulting, 1/20/14
China's three main telecom operators have announced their subscriber totals for December 2013.
December saw the net addition of 6.42 new mobile subscribers. China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) recorded a net addition of 3.91 new mobile subscribers, pushing the operator's total mobile user base to 767.21 mln, of which a total of 191.62 mln subscribers used China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network during the month. China Mobile added 10.50 mln new TD-SCDMA subscribers in December, but lost 6.59 mln GSM subscribers.
China Unicom (NYSE: CHU; 0762.HK; 600050.SH) saw a net addition of 2.40 mln new mobile subscribers during the month, bringing its total to 280.98 mln, of which 158.38 mln were GSM subscribers, and 122.60 mln were WCDMA subscribers. China Unicom lost 1.12 mln GSM subscribers and added 3.52 mln new WCDMA subscribers in December.
China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) saw a net addition of 110,000 new mobile subscribers, taking its total to 185.58 mln, of which 103.11 mln were CDMA2000 EV-DO subscribers and 82.47 mln were CDMA subscribers. China Telecom added 730,000 mln new CDMA2000 EV-DO subscribers, but lost 620,000 CDMA subscribers in December.
Of the combined total of 417.33 mln 3G subscribers, China Mobile holds 45.92%, China Unicom 29.38%, and China Telecom 24.71%. Of total new mobile subscribers added in December, China Mobile took 60.92%, dropping its share of China's total mobile user base to 62.18%. China Unicom's share of the total mobile user base increased for the 35th straight month, rising from 22.70% at the end of November to 22.77% at the end of December, while China Telecom's share declined from 15.11% at the end of November to 15.04% at the end of December. Prior to December, China Telecom's share of China's total mobile user base had increased for 59 consecutive months.
China Telecom lost 710,000 fixed-line subs, reducing its total to 155.80 mln, and China Unicom lost 420,000 fixed-line subs, decreasing its total to 87.64 mln.
China Telecom gained 670,000 new broadband subscribers to reach 100.10 mln, and China Unicom added 45,000 new broadband subs to reach 64.65 mln total broadband subscribers.
Editor's Note: According to China Telecom, the slowdown in the net addition of mobile subscribers in December 2013 was mainly due to increased market competition driven by the launch of 4G LTE services and strengthened marketing promotion by China Mobile.
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 4G
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