China’s three major mobile players racked up nearly 1.05 billion 5G network subscribers at end-March, with market leader China Mobile registering an 18.6 per cent year-on-year growth to 578 million.

China Telecom and China Unicom disclosed their network numbers in the quarter, previously releasing package subscriber figures.

China Telecom reported 266.2 million 5G network subscribers, with its website no longer showing package subs – those with 5G plans but not compatible devices. Total mobile users increased 4.3 per cent to 429.5 million.

China Unicom ended the quarter with 203.8 million 5G network subs. A year ago it reported 268.9 million 5G package subs.

Earnings
China Mobile’s operating revenue was flat at CNY222.4 billion ($2.6 billion), while China Telecom’s sales were also unchanged at CNY135.5 billion.

Both reported roughly 3 per cent growth in net profit: CNY30.6 billion for China Mobile and CNY8.9 billion for China Telecom.

China Mobile’s telecoms services revenue inched up 1.4 per cent to CNY222.4 billion.

Its overall mobile subscriber base dipped marginally to 1 billion.

ARPU improved 3.5 per cent to CNY46.90. Average data consumption slipped from 16.6GB to 16.1GB.

China Unicom’s operating revenue increased 3.9 per cent to CNY103.4 billion, with service revenue edging up 2 per cent to CNY90.9 billion. Sales of telecom products grew 19.3 per cent to CNY12.5 billion.

Its net profit increased 5.6 per cent to CNY5.9 billion.

The operator added 4.8 million mobile subscribers to close March with 349 million.