Marbridge Daily

China's Telcos Announce January 2018 Subscriber Totals

Marbridge Consulting, 2/23/18

China's three main telecom operators have announced their subscriber totals for the month of January 2018, including a combined net addition of 11.78 mln mobile subscribers in China.

China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) reported a net addition of 3.84 mln new mobile subscribers in January, pushing the telecom operator's total mobile user base to 891.04 mln. Of the total, 654.75 mln subscribers used its TD-LTE network during the month. China Mobile added 5.24 new TD-LTE subs in January. China Mobile added 4.08 mln new fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) in January, increasing its total fixed-line broadband user base to 116.76 mln.

China Unicom (NYSE: CHU; 0762.HK; 600050.SH) reported a net addition of 2.87 mln mobile billing subscribers during the month of January, pushing the telecom operator's total mobile billing user base to 287.04 mln. Of the total, 181.29 mln were LTE subscribers, with a net addition of 6.42 mln LTE subs during the month. China Unicom lost 0.51 mln fixed-line telephone subscribers in January, dropping its total to 59.48 mln. The operator added 0.50 mln fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) in January, increasing its total to 77.04 mln.

China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) saw a net increase of 5.06 mln mobile subscribers in January, raising its total to 255.02 mln, of which 187.77 mln were 4G terminal users, with a net increase of 5.73 mln 4G terminal users in January. China Telecom lost 0.25 mln fixed-line telephone subs in December, reducing its total to 121.55 mln. China Telecom gained 1.03 mln new fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) to reach 134.56 mln.

China Mobile's share of China's total mobile subscriber base as of the end of January 2018 decreased to 62.18%, compared to 62.42% at the end of December 2017. China Unicom's share increased to 20.03%, compared to 19.99% at the end of December 2017, while China Telecom's share grew to 17.80%, up from 17.59% at the end of December 2017.

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