Marbridge Daily

China's Telcos Announce September 2017 Subscriber Totals

Marbridge Consulting, 10/27/17

China's three main telecom operators have announced their subscriber totals for the month of September 2017, including a combined net addition of 12.87 mln mobile subscribers in China.

China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) reported a net addition of 3.98 mln new mobile subscribers in September, pushing the telecom operator's total mobile user base to 877.71 mln. Of the total, 621.76 mln subscribers used its TD-LTE network during the month. China Mobile added 4.93 mln new TD-LTE subs in September. China Mobile added 4.49 mln new fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) in September, increasing its total fixed-line broadband user base to 103.43 mln.

China Unicom (NYSE: CHU; 0762.HK; 600050.SH) reported a net addition of 3.82 mln mobile billing subscribers during the month of September, pushing the telecom operator's total mobile billing user base to 276.87 mln. Of the total, 160.28 mln were LTE subscribers, with a net addition of 7.56 mln LTE subs during the month. China Unicom lost 0.73 mln fixed-line telephone subscribers in September, dropping its total to 61.76 mln. The operator added 0.42 mln fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) in September, increasing its total to 77.41 mln.

China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) saw a net increase of 5.07 mln mobile subscribers in September, increasing its total to 240.56 mln, of which 167.52 mln were 4G terminal users, with a net increase of 5.76 mln 4G terminal users in September. China Telecom lost 0.29 mln fixed-line telephone subs in September, reducing its total to 123.31 mln. China Telecom gained 1.54 mln new fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) to reach 131.31 mln. By the end of September 2017, China Telecom had approximately 121.80 mln Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) users, with a net addition of about 15.81 mln for the first three quarters of 2017.

China Mobile's share of China's total mobile subscriber base as of the end of September 2017 decreased to 62.91%, compared to 63.21% at the end of August 2017. China Unicom's share increased to 19.85%, compared to 19.75% at the end of August 2017, while China Telecom's share grew to 17.24%, up from 17.04% at the end of August 2017.

Keywords: wireless China Telecom China Mobile China Unicom fixed-line broadband telecom 4G mobile subscribers broadband subscribers FTTH CHL TD-LTE 0728.HK 0762.HK 0941.HK 600050.SH CHA CHU fiber optics fixed-line subscribers market share registered users