Marbridge Daily

China's Telcos Announce December 2018 Subscriber Totals

Marbridge Consulting, 1/21/19

China's three main telecom operators have announced their subscriber totals for the month of December 2018, including a combined net addition of 8.21 mln mobile subscribers in China.

China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) reported a net addition of 2.96 mln new mobile subscribers in December, pushing the telecom operator's total mobile user base to 925.07 mln. Of the total, 712.65 mln subscribers used its LTE networks during the month. China Mobile added 8.15 mln new LTE subs in December. China Mobile added 2.42 mln new fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) in December, increasing its total fixed-line broadband user base to 156.69 mln.

China Unicom (NYSE: CHU; 0762.HK; 600050.SH) reported a net addition of 2.03 mln mobile billing subscribers during the month of December, pushing the telecom operator's total mobile billing user base to 315.04 mln. Of the total, 219.93 mln were LTE subscribers, with a net addition of 2.53 mln LTE subs during the month. China Unicom lost 0.40 mln fixed-line telephone subscribers in December, dropping its total to 55.90 mln. The operator lost 0.22 mln fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) in December, decreasing its total to 80.88 mln.

China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) saw a net increase of 3.22 mln mobile subscribers in December, raising its total to 303.00 mln, of which 242.43 mln were 4G terminal users, with a net increase of 4.63 mln 4G terminal users in December. China Telecom lost 0.64 mln fixed-line telephone subs in December, reducing its total to 116.48 mln. China Telecom gained 0.55 mln new fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) to reach 145.79 mln.

China Mobile's share of China's total mobile subscriber base as of the end of December 2018 decreased to 59.95%, compared to 60.08% at the end of November 2018 and 62.42% at the end of December 2017. China Unicom's share increased to 20.42%, compared to 20.39% at the end of November 2018 and 19.99% at the end of December 2017, and China Telecom's share grew to 19.64%, up from 19.53% at the end of November 2018 and 17.59% at the end of December 2017.

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